Angolese dairy company Lacticínios de Angola (Lactiangol) struggles to develop as it faces difficulties accessing foreign currency. According the firm’s president, Lactiangol’s production could drop to 3.5 million litres from 5 million litres. The crisis is more severe for dairy products. Truly, production of yogurt for example has fallen 50%. The current situation arises as the company...

A year and half only after signing a strategic partnership agreement directed towards the Islamic finance sector, Moroccan group Banque Centrale Populaire (BCP) and Guidance Financial Group now take action. The two groups have indeed decided to launch a new halal bank in which BCP will hold a 80% stake while Guidance Finance Group is to hold the remaining 20%, Moroccan newspaper l’Economiste...

SOCO International Plc., on Monday revealed that it has commenced the drilling of the Baobab Marine-1 Exploration well offshore the Republic of Congo According to the company, the drilling began on February 5, 2016 in the Mer Profonde Sud Block located in the Lower Congo Basin, offshore Congo (Brazzaville)   The well which will be spud on the RR Prospect, is aiming fixed early Miocene...

Vitol Group, the world’s leading oil trader, forecast that oil prices will remain low for the next decade due to the slowing Chinese economy and the U.S shale industry’s boost. “It’s hard to see a dramatic price increase,” Vitol Group BV CEO Ian Taylor told Bloomberg in an interview on January 8th. Taylor whose group trade more than 5.5 million barrels of crude and refined oil per...

Qatar Petroleum on Monday announced that it has entered into an agreement to procure 30% of Chevron’s interest in drilling areas, offshore Morocco. Situated 100 to 200 km West and Northwest of Agadir, the drilling areas include Cap Rhir Deep, Cap Cantin Deep and Cap Walidia Deep. Under the agreement, Chevron now hold a 45% interest in the offshore areas, while Morocco will maintain a 25%...

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Total has commenced a seismic survey on Block III, Albertine Graben exploration license, which is situated on the country’s border with Uganda. The company secured the licence for the block in 2012 but not able to begin an exploration program due to insecurity in the area. Initial exploration on adjacent blocks had indicated that the area could hold...

Banque publique d’investissement (BpiFrance), a French funding and development institution, and Caisse tunisienne des dépôts et consignations (CDC) launched on February 5th, a French-Tunisian private equity fund named “Co-Localisation” that aims to support SMEs in both countries. This fund was allocated €20 million, provided through the equal participation of BpiFrance and CDC....

Sound Energy on Monday announced that it has entered into a binding agreement with Oil & Gas Investment Fund (OGIF). Under the agreement, OGIF will allow Sound Energy secure a 55% interest and operatorship in the Meridja permit, onshore Morocco. The interest is however subject to regulatory and other necessary approval. OGIF presently holds a 75% interest in a Reconnaissance permit over the...

Workers at company Petroci have increased their strike for another 72 hours as they look to bring in workers from other companies in the sector to join the protest. “Next week we will intensify the strike and see if other employees from other companies in the sector join the Petroci employees in this strike,” Geremie N'Guessan Wondje, secretary general of the SYNTEPCI union said. Petroci...

Low crude oil prices will continue longer than expected Morgan Stanley, American multinational financial services corporation revealed. The bank on Thursday reduced its 2016 Brent price prediction to $30 per barrel (a 40 % reduction from its initial prediction) stating that a disparity between supply and demand is to persist for another two years. In January, the World Bank cut its...