In Morocco, Bab Ighli, the village which will host from November 7 to 18, 2016, the COP22 is 98% complete. The 300,000 m² site which will receive 20,000 delegates from 196 countries has been delivered in most part. It comprises 55 tents mounted in less than three months and divided in two zones. The Blue Zone administrated by the United Nations and which has been designed in respect with the...

Banking group Attijariwafa Bank and its majority stakeholder, Moroccan royal holding Société Nationale d’Investissement (SNI), now hold equal shares in Wafa Assurance. A statement published by Attijariwafa states that SNI acquired a 50% interest in OGM, a holding that holds a 79.29% on Wafa Assurance. The transaction will provide the bank, the necessary capital to grow worldwide and in...

Total has announced that it expects the offshore Moho Nord field to add a further 100,000 barrels a day when it starts first production by early 2017. According to Total’s Africa president for exploration and production, Guy Maurice (photo), the company expected to make a final investment decision on its onshore Ugandan field by the end of 2017. “Lower operational expenditure on one side...

Oil output from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is expected to set another record high driven by a partial recovery of output from disruption from Nigeria and Libya and an increase in exports from Iraq, a Reuters survey discovered on Monday. The survey showed that supply from the OPEC rose to 33.82 million barrels per day in October from 33.69 million bpd in...

Hyperdynamics Corporation, an independent oil & gas exploration company has announced that it has signed a letter of award with drilling contractor Pacific Drilling to employ the Pacific Bora drillship. Under the agreement, the rig is to be used for a drilling campaign offshore the Republic of Guinea in Q2 of 2017, at the Fatala turbidite fan prospect. It also allows Hyperdynamics to extend the...

Sonatrach’s oil and gas exports from January to the end of October reached 89 million tonnes of oil equivalent, an increase of 9% compared to the same period in 2015, the Algeria’s state-owned oil company revealed. Oil output also increased by 80,000 barrels per day in Q3. This increase had resulted in a rise of around 1 million tonnes of Sahara Blend, which was shipped to Cuba following the...

The Nigerian Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu (photo), has announced that the country plans to establish an independent agency to control the gas industry. According to the Minister, the government would continue to be the policy maker but the new independent petroleum regulatory authority would be created and provided with adequate capacity to regulate the...

Egypt’s oil ministry has signed a memorandum of understanding with Iraq in order to import oil from the latter. This deal is coming almost three weeks after Saudi Arabia's sudden decision to stop oil shipments to Egypt, therefore putting more pressure on the government. According to Oil Minister, Tarek el-Mulla, the agreement will open the doors for the development of oil cooperation with...

South Africa’s energy department has said that the retail price of petrol will increase by 45 cents a litre for both 93 octane and 95 octane from Wednesday, November 2, 2016. According to the department, Diesel will increase by 63 cents a litre, while the wholesale price of illuminating paraffin will go up by 57 cents a litre. The maximum retail price of LPG will also up by 59 cents a...

In Algeria, State-owned oil Company, Sonatrach has announced that it made a total of 28 hydrocarbon discoveries from the beginning of this year to September 30, 2016 mostly from the Hassi Messaoud and Berkine. “Sonatrach, as part of its exploration activities, has announced it made twenty-eight hydrocarbon finds until Sep. 30,” the group said in a statement adding that all the finds, three...