Bowleven Plc in its preliminary results and operational update for the year ended 30 June 2016, announced that it is making headway on developing its offshore Cameroonian assets in spite of losses. The company said two appraisal well locations had been decided with its partners on the Etinde play in Cameroon as they target extra volumes of about 2 trillion cubic feet of gas from Etinde. Bowleven...

Somalia will soon launch first offshore hydrocarbon licencing round for exploration of oil and gas. This round will encompass areas off central and southern Somalia and will exclude shallow water block concessions signed in 1988 with Shell and Exxon Mobil. According to Abdulkadir Hussein, technical director-general in Somalia's Petroleum Ministry, a new state owned national oil company and...

Egyptian Petroleum Minister, Tarek El Molla (photo), has announced on Tuesday, that the country will be procuring refined oil products from the international spot market after Saudi Aramco decided to stop the shipment of products indefinitely. He declared this on the sidelines of the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC). According to El-Molla, Egypt is meeting...

Kosmos Energy has announced that it has signed an agreement with Galp Energia to farm out 20% non-operated stake of its interest in Blocks 5, 11, and 12, offshore Sao Tome and Principe. Under the terms of the agreement, Galp will pay a fair share of Kosmos’ past costs on the 3D seismic survey over blocks 6, 11 and 12, which is anticipated to commence in Q1 of 2017.The transaction, which is...

NGO Tropenbos International revealed in a study it recently released that urban dwellers in Congo purchase more and more agricultural lands which they do not or cannot use and thus deprive rural populations of their main source of living. Talking at a Citizen’s Forum on agricultural challenges, the NGO’s head, Alphonse Maindo denounced: “We found out that many lands are hoarded that the...

Mozambique’s attorney general has appointed U.S. risk management firm Kroll to conduct the audit of the country’s debt after it was discovered that more than $2 billion in loans had been hidden by public firms, local media reported on November 5. The Mozambique News Agency will audit Mozambique Tuna Company (Ematum), Proindicus and Mozambique Asset Management. The audit is a...

China will put its expertise and support at the disposal of Guinea’s ICT and telecommunication sector. This came out from a visit by Guinea’s President, Alpha Condé, to China from October 25 to November 4, 2016. Guinea seeks to diversify its economy and make ITC and telecoms a cornerstone for its growth. China which is much advanced in the sector is thus a partner of choice for the nation....

The government of Angola wishes to raise taxes on imported meat, as it wants promote local production thereby saving about $200 million of foreign currencies yearly. According to the Jornal de Angola, the nation spends around $1 billion in meat imports every year. José Sévérino, the President of Angola’s Industrial Association, believes that importers could contribute to the...

The Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) announced it will sell the Morupule B coal-fired 600 MW power station. The infrastructure which was built by the China National Electric Equipment Corporation at a cost of $970 million has been experiencing persistent technical problems since it was commissioned in 2012. “Morupule B has proven to be costly to maintain and operate due to construction...

“It is with great honor that I declare open the COP 22,” said French Minister of Environment, Ségolène Royal, launching in Marrakech, Morocco, the 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 22, on November 7, 2016. The official who was until now the COP’s president then passed her baton to Salaheddine Mezouar, Morocco’s minister of foreign affairs and cooperation, who will now...