The Gabonese Ministry of Petroleum and Hydrocarbons has today appointed CGG as technical consultant to assist with the promotion of its 11th Licencing Round with focus on five deepwater blocks. The round is to be opened for five months starting on the 27th of October 2015 and bids can be submitted from the 15th of February 2016 onwards and by no later than 31st of March 2016. Prequalification...

The government of Angola has appointed a team to assist in reorganising the oil sector and state owned Sonangol as it grapples with the fall in the price of crude oil. The team is to include the minister of state, minister of petroleum, minister of finance, the governor of the central bank and officials of Sonangol, President Jose Eduardo dos Santos declared in a statement. Oil production...

Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara was re-elected at the end of the first round of the presidential election of 25 October for a new term of five years, the Independent Election Commission (CEI) announced on 28 October. Mr Ouattara, 73 years, garnered 83.66% of votes. He is largely ahead of Pascal Affi N’Guessan, representing the Front Populaire Ivorien (FPI) founded by ex-president Laurent...

Remi Depoix, president of French firm Céréalis which is specialized in the trading of grains, revealed that the firm exports around 200,000 tons of its wheat to Cameroon each year. This represents about 20% of Céréalis’ sales revenue, he says in an interview to the daily l’Economie. Clearly put, out of approximately 200 million euros (131 billion CFA Francs) it makes yearly in Central...

“Gross negligence”. This is the reason used to justify the suspension of the General Manager and 2 other management personnel of the Radiodiffusion Télévision Guinéenne (RTG). Apart from General Manager Yamoussa Sidibé, the sanction concerns the National Broadcasting Director, Ismael Keita, and the National Television Director (RTG Koloma), Fodé Tass Sylla. Their suspension came into...

The Tunisian minister of Communication Technology and Digital Economy, Noomène El Fehri and Houda Imane Feraoun (photo), Algerian minister of Posts and ICT, met on 26 October 2015. During the audience hosted by his Algerian counterpart, both ministers agreed on strengthening the optic fibre which links the two countries since 2013 in Taref, border wilaya between the two countries. According to...

Indian telecom group Bharti Airtel and telecom infrastructure manager Eaton Towers announced this 27 October 2015 the successful completion of the sale of about 700 telecom towers in Burkina Faso. The success of this operation follows the failure of last week when both parties failed to complete the sale of Bharti Airtel’s Malawian towers. With this new sale, the telecom operator has thus...

Shell has been granted an environmental clearance for exploration drilling in the Orange Basin Deep Water licence area by South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs. The clearance grants Shell permission to drill up to two offshore exploration wells in the northern part of the licence area, off South Africa’s west coast which covers about 37,290km², Oil review Africa reports. In...

PetroSA, has announced that it is considering selling up to 49 % equity stakes in 10 offshore blocks. The stakes on offer includes 10 to 20 % of the company’s current equity holding of 40 % in Block 1 on the West Coast in which Cairn India holds the remaining 60 % interest. PetroSA was also looking to farm out stakes in its Block 9 North, which was close to its...

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), have today restated their vow to promote sustainable development in the area of their operations in Nigeria. The Group Executive Director, Exploration & Production, NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru (photo), represented by the General Managing, Planning, Nigeria Petroleum Investment Management...