Liberia seeks $1.3 billion to restart its economy which was crippled by recent Ebola outbreak and fall in prices of commodities, Bloomberg reported on November 1, citing the country’s Minister of Finance, Development and Planning, Boima Kamara. “After recording practically no growth over the past three years, we well intend to invest in power production to stimulate the manufacturing...

PanAfrican private equity firm AfricInvest has announced in a statement published on November 1, that its Maghreb Private Equity Fund II (MPEF II) sold its 20.06% interest in Tunisian seed company Cotugrain Hortimag. MPEF II sold its stake to a consortium comprising BIAT Capital Risque, the venture capital fund of Banque Internationale Arabe de Tunisie (BIAT), Tunisia’s leading private bank,...

In Africa, a good part of the population believes China’s influence on the continent is positive, consortium of survey institutes Afrobaromètre said in a study released on October 28, 2016. According to the study, 63% of the population surveyed – 50,000 people from 36 African countries – thinks China’s political and economic influence on the continent is positive. Only 15% of those...

Royal Dutch Shell and joint venture partners have announced the commencement of drilling of two wells in Block 1 and 4, located in the Mafia Deep basin of Tanzania. The two wells are expected to meet the remaining exploration requirements in line with the exploration licences issued by the Ministry of Energy and Minerals (MEM). The joint venture partners will be investing nearly $80M into...

FAR Ltd. has announced that it is in disagreement with ConocoPhillips’ sale of three exploration blocks offshore Senegal to Australian energy company Woodside. Let us be reminded that last week ConocoPhillips said it has finalized the sale of 35% interest in three exploration blocks; Rufisque, Sangomar and Sangomar Deep, which contains the SNE and FAN deep-water oil discoveries, offshore...

In Libya, the chairman of the National Oil Corporation, Mustafa Sanalla, has said that the company needs $2.5 billion in investment in order to increase its crude oil production from around 590,000 bpd to 800,000 barrels per day in 2017. According to Sanalla, Libya’s crude oil output increased from about 290,000 bpd in mid-September to around 590,000 bpd now, after ports were reopened. He...

Tullow Oil has announced plans to resume its exploration and appraisal drilling at the South Lokichar Basin in December, a senior official has revealed. “A recent 3-D survey shows additional upside potential,” Tim O'Hanlon (photo), vice president for Tullow Oil Africa, said. Tullow, Africa Oil Corporation and Maersk Oil hold around 750 million barrels of crude and an upside potential of 1...

Victoria Oil & Gas has announced that its Cameroon gas producing and distributing subsidiary, Gaz du Cameroun (GDC), has started the drilling of the development wells La-107 and La-108 in the Logbaba gas field. According to the company, the wells should cost $40million and the campaign should be completed in the Q2 of 2017. Both wells are expected to be drilled directionally from a drilling...

Mozambique will hold its sixth round of oil and gas licensing round late in 2017 or in 2018, Augusto Macuvele, a senior official with Mozambique's National Petroleum Institute revealed on Tuesday, providing few details about the rounds, Reuters reports. The Southern African nation has some 85 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves, enough to supply Germany, Britain, France and Italy for nearly two...

Sound Energy in its update on its second well at the Tendrara licence area, onshore Eastern Morocco, announced that the well has been completed and an initial unstimulated, open hole well test of the first 28% of the gross reservoir interval has been performed. The Tendrara TE-7 well was drilled to a total measured depth of 3,459 metres corresponding to a vertical depth of 2,611 metres. The well...