West Africa

Tullow founder Aidan Heavey secures $1bln for new oil and gas venture

October 01, 2019 | Budget & Investment, West Africa

Boru Energy to headed by Heavey and former Tullow colleague Tom Hickey and will target assets in Africa London, UK |  Former Tullow Oil senior executives Aidan Heavey and Tom Hickey have secured $1 billion (€920 million) in backing from US investment giant Carlyle for a new oil and gas venture in West Africa to be called Boru Energy. The company will target acquisitions of “primarily non-operated interests” in oil and gas assets across several sub-Saharan African countries  Irish Times reports. Mr Heavey, who stepped down as chairman of Tullow – the exploration company …

Total and Sonangol sign oil block contract in São Tomé & Príncipe

March 27, 2019 | Company Operations, Licensing & Concessions, West Africa

London, UK | –  São Tomé and Príncipe’s National Petroleum Agency on Friday signed a production-sharing agreement with the consortium made up of France’s Total E&P and Angola’s Sonangol, according to a statement released on Monday in São Tomé. The production-sharing agreement, signed after the conclusion of negotiations with the consortium, is focused on oil prospecting in Block 1 of São Tomé and Príncipe’s Exclusive Economic Zone, the agency said. Negotiations, which began on 9 November 2018, came after the National Petroleum Agency made the …

Australia’s FAR Limited prepares to drill Gambia’s first offshore well in 40 years

August 23, 2018 | Company Operations, Drilling / Completions, West Africa

London, UK | – Australian African-focused independent oil company, FAR Limited has selected its final well location for the upcoming Samo-1 well in its Gambian exploration program. Following reprocessing and interpretation of 3D seismic data, detailed mapping of the Samo Prospect and detailed well engineering, FAR Gambia Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of FAR Limited, as Operator of the block A2 joint venture, has approved a Samo-1 well location. The Samo Prospect lies immediately to the south and along trend from the giant SNE oil …

Gambia to market oil blocks disputed by African Petroleum

November 10, 2017 | Government & Regulations, Licensing & Concessions, West Africa

London, UK | – Gambia plans to market two offshore oil blocks that African Petroleum says it still legally holds, the country’s minister of justice said on Friday. Norwegian-listed African Petroleum said in October it had launched arbitration proceedings against the Gambian government to defend its exploration rights. Licenses for the two blocks expired in September 2016 but the oil company had been in talks with the government until earlier this year to extend the exploration period. African Petroleum has previously said the terms of …

Nigeria to extend gas pipeline to Cote d’Ivoire

August 03, 2017 | Nigeria, Pipelines, West Africa

Abuja, Nigeria | – The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC) said the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP) will be extended from Ghana to Cote d’ Ivoire. It said this is part of the Federal Government West African energy integration policy. Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr Maikanti Baru, made this disclosure yesterday while receiving a delegation from Cote d’Ivoire at the NNPC Towers in Abuja. Represented by the Chief Operating Officer, Gas and Power, Saidu Mohammed, the GMD stated that the extension of WAGP …

Gambia ends exploration extension talks with African Petroleum, seeks new bidders

July 05, 2017 | Exploration / Discoveries, Government & Regulations, West Africa

Banjul, Gambia | – Gambia has ended talks with African Petroleum to extend oil exploration in two of the West African country’s most promising offshore blocks and is now in preliminary discussions with new investors, a senior oil official told Reuters. Oslo-listed African Petroleum’s share price fell 57 percent after the story was published, prompting the bourse to temporarily suspend trading. The company, founded by Australian-Romanian billionaire Frank Timis, issued a statement denying that its licenses had been terminated. African Petroleum had been seeking to …

Mali signs €52million deal for first West African utility-scale solar plant

July 10, 2015 | Budget & Investment, Solar, West Africa

London, UK | – A historic build, own and operate agreement signed on Friday between Norwegian company Scatec Solar (SSO), the Malian Ministry of Energy and Malian electricity utility Water and Electricité du Mali (EDM) will see the construction of West Africa’s first utility-scale solar power plant, near the ancient city of Segou, in south-east Mali. The 33 MW, €52-million facility, which would be developed in partnership with the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC’s) global infrastructure project development fund InfraVentures and local developer Africa Power 1, …