Africa Energy Intelligence

AFRICA ENERGY INTELLIGENCE Sample From Past Issue

SPOTLIGHT

SUDAN

Russian Offensive on Sudan’s Oil

While the Canadian firm Talisman is doing its utmost to dump its assets in Sudan (AEI 307) oil companies from the Soviet Union are feverishly working to make headway in the country. (...).

STRATEGIES

ENERGY AFRICA

The Mini-Major Wants Full Status

An affiliate of Engen, the South African company controlled by Malaysia’s Petronas, Energy Africa is a ? (...).

SNH

Oil on the Chad Border?

Officials from Cameroon’s Societe Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SNH) realized they are experiencing good times this year that may not come back in the near future. (...).

SHELL

Decision on Kudu by Year’s End

Shell’s partner on the Kudu field in Namibia, the South African firm Energy Africa announced that the Anglo-Dutch giant would decide by the end of this year whether a floating plant for the liquefaction of natural gas should be built to develop the field (AEI 305). (...).

AGIP

Exploration in Congo-B

The second-ranking producer in Congo-Brazzaville after TotalFinaElf, Agip will step up its exploration program on its Congolese concessions (Marine VI, Marine VII, Marine X, Marine IX, Mer Profonde North, Kitina South, Mer Tres Profonde South and Mer Tres Profonde North). (...).

JAPAN NATIONAL OIL CORP.

Farewell Algeria

The state-owned Japan National Oil Corp. intends to leave Algeria after recording disappointing results on the Touggourt permit north-east of Hassi Messaoud. (...).

PETRONAS

Negotiating with Talisman

Malaysia’s state-owned oil company Petronas appears best placed among three companies bidding to acquire the assets of the Canadian firm Talisman in Sudan (AEI 308). (...).

OIL & GAS

GABON

Gabon: Find Oil at Any Price

Faced with a significant drop in its oil revenue (AEI 306-303), Gabon is pulling out all the stops to raise funds to revive exploration in the country. (...).

IVORY COAST

Regional Role for Refinery?

With the privatization of Societe Ivoirienne de Raffinage (SIR) now underway (AEI 307), the company’s chairman, Joel Dervain, appears to have region-wide ambitions for the facility: (...).

MAURITANIA

Aussies Already Quit On-shore

Mauritania’s oil bonanza looks set to fizzle out before it begins. The Australian group Hardman Resources has just announced it is pulling out of block 12 after deeming the concession’s oil potential too limited. (...).

NIGERIA

Cosmetic Indigenisation

Although a call to bid for 24 marginal fields has been reserved for local companies in step with the Obasanjo government’s indigenisation policy, a lot of Western oil juniors are interested in the tender, which closes on Nov. (...).

NIGERIA

Raft of LNG Projects

Nigeria is mulling a whole new range of projects to export liquefied natural gas just as Nigeria LNG (NLNG) completed the sale of two LNG shipments initially earmarked for the U. (...).

ANGOLA

Roc Oil’s Mysterious Partners

In making its debut in Angola’s onshore this month, the Australian company Roc Oil was accompanied by two partners unknown in the oil exploration field in Africa. (...).

EQUATORIAL GUINEA

CMS Pulls Out

Heavily indebted - with a debt to equity ratio of 70/30—the U.S. firm CMS Energy announced on Oct. (...).

ALGERIA/SPAIN

GDF Won’t Distribute Algerian Gas

Royal Dutch Shell and British Petroleum have won the first round in the fight for Spain’s deregulated gas market. (...).

AFRICA

Rosneft’s Africa Strategy

In addition to its interest in Sudan (see P. 1), Russia’s state-owned Rosneft company is increasingly active elsewhere in Africa. (...).

NIGER

TotalFinaElf and Tamoil Set to Compete for SONIDEP

The French oil group TotalFinaElf and Libya’s Tamoil, which has already bought Shell’s retail network in Niger, are limbering up for a fight in the first quarter of 2002 to acquire 60% of Societe Nigerienne de Distribution Petroliere (SONIDEP) that is coming onto the market. (...).

ANGOLA

Sonangol Offers Leg-Up

Angola’s national oil company Sonangol will proffer advice to Equatorial Guinea’s future oil group Gepetrole (see above) after providing training and counseling to Congo-Brazzaville’s SNPC firm. (...).

ELECTRICITY BRIEFS

UGANDA

Tug of War over Bujagali

Any delay in World Bank approval of AES project to build a dam at Bujagali could cost the promoters up to $60 million in lost revenue. (...).

NIGER

NIGELEC a Good Deal?

African countries tend to privatize a company only when it’s in trouble. For the moment the Societe Nigerienne d’Electricite (NIGELEC) counts as one of the rare state-run companies in Niger that is making money. (...).

ALGERIA

Challenges Facing Sonelgaz

Algeria’s Sonelgaz company that sees to the production, transmission and distribution of power is facing the need to invest heavily to satisfy ever-rising demand at a time when legislation and regulations governing the country’s power industry are fast evolving. (...).

WEST AFRICA

Watchdog Panel for Manantali

An offshoot of OMVS, the Societe de Gestion de l’Energie de Manantali has just set up a committee to monitor rates agreements and the interconnection that will govern distribution of electricity from the Manantali dam. (...).

LEGAL ISSUES & FUNDINGS

UGANDA

$80 Million for Kenya Pipeline

The pipeline linking Eldoret in Kenya to Kampala in Uganda will call for an outlay of 6 billion shillings ($80 million), according to a study made public by Uganda energy minister Syda Bbumba. (...).

KENYA

Canadian firm to Study Power Tie with South Africa

Canada’s Acres International was picked by the Kenyan government to study the possibility of importing inexpensive power from the Southern Africa Power Pool (SAPP) that links Zambia, Tanzania and South Africa. (...).

CHAD

EU Backs Doba-Kribi Project

Under its new 2001-2007 cooperation program that it has just endorsed, the European Commission has decided to join the World Bank in funding the College de Control et de Surveillance des Revenus Petroliers (CCSRP) that was set up by president Idriss Deby by decree last year under pressure from the Bank and the International Monetary Fund. (...).

GHANA

Bui Dam Project Dropped

The project to build a dam at the tip of Bui lake in eastern Ghana has been dropped. (...).

SUDAN

Chinese Loan

The Export Import Bank of China has just awarded a loan worth 1. (...).

SWAZILAND

New Accord with Eskom

Swaziland’s energy ministry has just renewed a supply agreement with the South African Eskom utility. (...).

SOUTH AFRICA

Acreage to be Awarded in Deep Offshore

The Petroleum Agency of South Africa (PASA) that was set up in 1999 to award exploration and production licenses to oil companies is preparing to put acreage in the deep offshore up for grabs. (...).

NIGERIA

Shell Takes Communities to Court

For the first time in the history of Nigeria’s oil industry, an international