Lucara Diamond announced it has ended its contract with Eqstra Botswana who provides it mining services at its Karowe diamong project in Bostwana. The firm highlighted said the five-year contract, signed in December 2014, was terminated on November 29, 2016, and that all associated works were to end on December 13, 2016. It added that it has already started seeking for another mining...

Angolan textile firm Lassola, former Africa Textil, re-started its activities on November 31, 2016, Angop reports. Situated in Benguela, the plant should produce every year, 1.2 million towels, 1.6 million bed sheets, and 120,000 blankets made with cotton to satisfy the local demand for textile products. According to Yashima Moto, industrial chief of Lassola, it will import in a first stage,...

Addressing the press last December 1, the president of the federation of independent syndicates, surveyors and topographers of Cote d’Ivoire (FESIGT-CI), Yoboué Bodoua Sévérin Arsène, painted quite a gloomy picture of the Ivorian land industry. Most preoccupying topics include the management of the allotment’s regularization, how land developers work and the issuance of a definitive...

The Mauritanian group AON (diversified group, holding the Banque National de Mauritanie) and Algerian Copresud (diversified group with assets in oil sector services) entered into partnership to explore potentialities of Algerian and African markets. The firms announced joint-ventures in agriculture (for cereals farming) and maritime drainage. “This partnership targets projects worth millions...

Egypt saw an increase in natural gas production from 4.35bcf/d to 4.45bcf/d in November with the connection of new wells to the national grid to make up for the falling rates in gas production. According to a source at the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS), the country added new wells with capacity of 100Mmcf/d of gas to production, thereby boosting the total local...

In response to concerns over emissions and ensuring cleaner fuel, five West African countries are banning European fuels with higher Sulphur levels. According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), last week countries like Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana and Ivory Coast introduced severe standards that will enable cleaner, low Sulphur diesel fuels and better emission standards,...

The government of Sudan has delayed an extension to ONGC Videsh’s licence on Block 2B as it seeks higher royalties, tax and profit. According to officials, ONGC’s licence for Block 2B expired a week ago and an automatic 5-year extension to the licence was available, but Sudan, whose income had been affected by the drop in crude oil prices, wants higher taxes and royalties before any...

Russian oil firm Rosneft has announced that it is interested in an offshore concession in Egypt. According to the company, its board plans to hold talks regarding the purchase of a stake of up to 35 percent in Egypt's offshore Shorouk concession, on Wednesday. It however did not disclose a value for the stake. The offshore Shorouk concession includes the huge Zohr gas field discovered by Eni in...

Hyperdynamics has announced that it has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with South Atlantic Petroleum Limited (SAPETRO) farm-out part of Hyperdynamics’ oil and gas concession offshore Guinea. Under the LOI, which is non-binding, SAPETRO, a privately held Nigerian oil and gas exploration and production company, will take a 20% participating interest and pay 40% of the costs of the upcoming...

The Secretary-General of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Mohammed Barkindo (photo), on Monday announced that the group will be meeting non-OPEC countries to finalize a global oil production cut agreement on December 10, 2016 in Vienna. This meeting, which is the first since 2002, had earlier been due to take place in Moscow but the plan was changed, two OPEC sources...