South African newspaper Sunday Times revealed that Foeta Krige and Suna Venter, two journalists, have received death threats. Both are employees of state broadcaster SABC. The journalists said they were sent SMSes ordering to leave the city. Also, Venter’s house was robbed. Venter and Krige are part of a group of eight journalists sacked by SABC and later re-hired. The state broadcaster was...

Eni has successfully restarted exploration activities onshore Tunisia in the Sahara desert, about 700 kms south of Tunisia.The Italian company has now completed operations on the discovery well, Laarich East-1, situated in the Makhrouga-Laarich-Debbech licence, where Eni owns a 50% stake and the Tunisian state company ETAP holds the remaining 50%. Laarich East-1 reached the final depth of 4,111...

Following the announcement of the commencement of negotiations in relation to the new deep-water Tano Basin acreage on September 7, 2016, Petrel and its partners in the Pan Andean consortium have been offered revised coordinates of the acreage by Ghanaian officials. “Negotiations to formalize a revised Petroleum Agreement between the Company and Ghanaian officials will continue as agreement...

The Mozambican government and Anadarko Petroleum are in the process of signing an agreement that will result in the commencement of natural gas extraction operations in the Rovuma basin, in Cabo Delgado province. According to Al Walker, the chief executive of the Anadarko, when signed, the agreement will resolve problem associated with contracts and legal framework, which are essentials in...

Cape Town-based investment portfolio manager, Allan Gray has bought a significant volume of naira bonds, issued by the Nigerian government. The treasury bonds were bought after the Central Bank of Nigeria decided to remove the peg on local currency which caused it to slump 37%. By doing so, Allan Gray went in the direction opposing most investors’. After a second quarter of economic slump,...

Negotiations between the Moroccan army and Russia are well advanced for purchase, by the Kingdom, of Russian “Amur-1650” diesel-electric powered submarine and Sukhoi SU-34 tactical bombers, reports Russian media Tass, cited by Defense World. “Ostensibly, Rabat needs advanced weaponry to fight terrorists, but experts presume a confrontation with its neighbor Algeria is a more likely...

The Secretary-General of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has said that the September 26-28 meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC producers in Algiers, would be an informal meeting for consultations and not for decision making. According to him, the group is not looking for a definite price range for oil, they are seeking stability for the market.“The informal gathering was...

The Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Co (EGAS) has boosted its natural gas production by 330 million cubic feet per day via the linking of 4 new wells to the national grids. These four wells are situated in the Mediterranean, Nile Delta and Western Desert Concessions owned by Eni, BP and Shell. This new development comes after Minister of Petroleum, Tarek El Molla, in late August declared that the...

Reversing last week’s decision, the Ivorian Cocoa and Coffee Council (CCC) said cocoa contracts will not be re-sold or cancelled in the 2016-2017 season. Indeed, last week Ivorian authorities gave cocoa exporters six days to provide a documented proof of their export contracts. The government even threatened to resell contracts of those who would fail to submit the required documents....

Secretary General of Algerian Ministry of Agriculture, Kamel Chadi, and China’s Ambassador to Algeria, Yang Guangyu, signed on September 15, 2016, in Algiers, a memorandum of understanding for the second stage of pilot project for the management of saline agricultural lands in the Hmadnas (Relizane) region, TsaAlgérie reported. Exploiting Algeria’s saline lands is crucial for the...