Shell gets green light for exploration drilling in the Orange Basin Deep Water Licence Area, off the western part of South Africa by the Department of Environmental Affairs. The environmental authorization gives Shell permission to drill up to two offshore exploration wells in the northern part of the licence area which is about 37 290km². Shell was granted the exploration right in the...

The Ocean Rig Athena drill ship which is to be used for the appraisal and exploration drilling programme offshore Senegal has today began mobilization from Luanda, Angola. The SNE discovery made in late 2014 is to be appraised with the first two wells in the three-well drilling program, PetroleumAfrica reports. The three wells; two appraisal wells for SNE (SNE-2 and SNE- 3) plus one shelf...

The Tunisian minister of Finance Slim Chaker announced, on 16th October, that his country was considering issuing a sukuk worth one billion dinars (approximately USD 500 million) in 2016. The minister, who was speaking during a press conference on the presentation of the 2016 Finance bill, also specified that the external financing requirements of Tunisia should reach 3 billion dinars (USD 1.5...

Towards satisfying the needs of West Africa’s oil and gas, power and telecoms as well as heavy industries, Dorman Long Engineering Nigeria Ltd and Intels Nigeria Ltd have decided to form a partnership in order to launch an advanced fabrication facility based in Onne Port, South of Nigeria. Marking the first time a floating, Production, Storage and Offloading Vessel (FPSO) unit will have access...

Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and Claudio Descalzi (photo), Eni’s Chief Executive Officer, are in talks over combined obligation to speed up the commencement of production on the Zohr field offshore Egypt, Offshore Energy Today reports. Descalzi had in September stated that it was going to require about $10 billion to bring the gas field to production. It was predicted that...

Golar LNG has today announced the approval of the tolling term sheet of its Cameroon FLNG project. Due to this, the commercial terms for the FLNG vessel, Golar Hilli have been confirmed. Recently, Cameroon's oil and gas companies, Societe Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SNH), Perenco Cameroon (Perenco), Golar Hilli Corporation and Golar Cameroon (Golar) executed a Gas binding agreement with the...

France will grant an additional €300 million in aid to Mali, mainly to develop the north of the country, where the ex-Tuareg rebellion and pro-government armed groups have just reached a peace agreement, AFP reported on 16 October, citing French diplomatic sources. “We are going to announce approximately €300 million until 2017, of which a substantial part is meant for the...

The Caisse Nationale d’Assurance Maladie et de Garantie Sociale (CNAMGS - National Health Insurance and Social Security Fund) assessed in this month of October 2015 its situation since 2011. CNAMGS informs that it has 905,431 persons insured, as at 1st October 2015 (out of a total population of 1.6 million). In the health sector, CNAMGS celebrates the commissioning of the Libreville Oncology...

The Tunisian economy should register a growth of 2.5% in 2016 against a rate of 0.5% expected in 2015, the Minister of Finance, Slim Chaker, announced on 16 October. This forecast remains far below the average of 5% noted in the ambitious 2016-2020 development programme recently presented by the government. Mr. Chaker also specified that the budget deficit should be back down to 3.9% of the GDP...

A new private airline company will soon compete with the national company Air Madagascar on the domestic flights market, RFI reported on 15 October. Labelled Madagasikara Airways, the new transporter is currently seeking official approval, the same source added. “We have requested from the Civil Aviation of Madagascar (ACM), in our desire to liberalise the airline industry, that they support...