What Angola Can Learn From Nigeria’s Oil Production

What Angola Can Learn From Nigeria’s Oil Production

With production declining and investment scarce, the Angolan leadership has put in place a number of new policies to reboot its oil industry and propel economic development. However, those changes take time and renewed deep-water oil and gas exploration for fresh reserves will take years to yield the desired results and stop the daily production crunch. In the meantime, the government is targeting what it already knows exists, the country's multiple deposits of what has been dubbed marginal oil fields, which will go on sale this year during the Angolan Marginal Field Bid Round. Marginal fields are defined by reduced profitability or lack of commercial viability. These can, at times, represent considerable amounts of crude oil in the reservoirs, but that, due to costly recovery processes, are not worth the investment under the existing legal and fiscal framework. In the Angolan deep offshore, several of these prospects have been found…
Omukama Solomon Gafabusa Iguru the king of Bunyoro kingdom

Breakaway Group Threatens To Sue Bunyoro Kingdom

Bugungu Cultural Revival Association has threatened to petition court should Bunyoro Kitara kingdom continue to stop them from relishing their constitutional right of forming a cultural institution. This comes days after police deployed heavily during the swearing in of Bugungu Cultural Revival Association executive on Saturday at Buliisa community hall. Police officers led by the ASP Denis Mangeni, the OC CID at Buliisa police station said they were deployed to stop the meeting. Reliable sources have told Earthfinds that the order to stop the meeting was issued by the Albertine Regional Police Commander SSP Obura Deo with request from Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom. But, Fred Lukumu, the deputy association chairperson says they are mandated by law to form a cultural institution which they are ready to form at any cost. Lukumu who is the former Buliisa LCV chairperson adds that they are ready to petition court should Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom continue…

Hoima Residents Bitter Over Unauthorized Land Use

By George Busiinge Over 100 residents of Bujumbura division in Hoima Municipality who are affected by the tarmacking of the Hoima-Wanseko road recently stormed the office of the Bujumbura LCIII chairman over the utilization of their land by the road contractor and Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) without their consent. UNRA contracted China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) to tarmac the road at a tune of Shs398 billion. The residents say UNRA surveyed the land for the road construction but they are surprised that the contractor is now utilizing their land. The affected residents are from Kyesiga, Bulemwa and Parajwoki villages along the Hoima-Wanseko road. Aisha Kabogere a resident of Parajwoki cell, Shaban Agaba and Musa Isingoma from Bulemwa cell say the contractor has embarked on extending piped water and this is done in their lands. The residents say some officials who are undertaking the works told them that they are…
EnviroServ Waste Management site in western Uganda

EnviroServ Fined R10.2m For Sabotaging Rivals

By Stephen Kasozi Muwambi WASTE Services Company EnviroServ Waste Management has been fined R10.2 million by the Competition Tribunal for collusion that would tantamount to sabotage and cheating of rivals. This story concerns us given the fact that EnviroServ has a branch in Uganda doing environment management in the oil-laden Albertine Region of the western part of the country. EnviroServ’s parent company is facing charges of abusing the environment back home in South Africa after residents complained of how their landfill at Shongwen in Durban emits a hazardous smell. Four top guns of EnviroServ South Africa, Dean Thompson, the Group’s Technical director, Esme Gombault, the Group’s Technical director, Dr Johan Schoonraaad and Clive Kidd have since been criminally charged over the allegedly stinking landfill. EnviroServ’s license was subsequently-- in April 2017-- revoked by the environment department in Durban leading to the closure of the landfill site. But Justice Ploos Van…
ENGIE To Fuel First Buses With Compressed Natural Gas In Cote d'Ivoire

ENGIE To Fuel First Buses With Compressed Natural Gas In Cote d'Ivoire

The Ivorian Minister of Transport, Mr Amadou Koné, and several government Ministers gathered to launch a ground breaking initiative as part of the country's commitment to the Paris COP 21 agreement. The Minister unveiled a fleet of buses commissioned by the Société des Transports Abidjanais (SOTRA), supplied by IVECO and fuelled by compressed natural gas. ENGIE and Tractebel collaborated to engineer, supply and install the first ever compressed natural gas (CNG) fuelling station in Abidjan.The CNG fuelling station is located on SOTRA's premises in Yopougon, Abidjan, and will facilitate the operation of the new range of compressed natural gas buses. When fully commissioned, the gas fuelling station will have a compression capacity of 1360 m³/h, and will be split into two units, each equipped with two hoses, enabling four buses to charge at any one time. ENGIE and Tractebel have a unique level of expertise and a local presence that…
Independent Oil Companies Turn Attention To Angola

Independent Oil Companies Turn Attention To Angola

Angola's licensing round will include a new focus on the development of marginal fields. The Angola Oil & Gas conference will be 2019's main promotional event for the licensing round and marginal fields. Licensing round and marginal field legislation indicate new strategic direction and opening of Angola's oil and gas business.Angola has developed a strategic plan to attract new players to its established oil and gas sector, promoting a licensing round at Angola Oil & Gas in June 2019 and opening up marginal fields based on new 2018 legislation. The measures will encourage new participation and investment from Angolan, African and international independents in the country's oil and gas sector. H.E. Diamantino Azevedo, Minister of Mineral Resources and Petroleum, is keen to bring new life to Angola's oil sector, which has seen a decline in discovered oil reserves and the maturing of producing fields. The 2019 licensing round, which will…
President João Lourenço of Angola

Deep Petroleum Industry Reforms Set Angola On Path To Growth In 2019

Reforms span from changes in tax law to changes in concession contracts and the opening of marginal fields to African independents. Key measures include the formation of upstream and downstream taskforces, the privatization of some Sonangol subsidiaries, and the creation of a new regulator to manage concessions. The measures are already attracting interest from investors and establishing confidence in the administration.Angola's economy is set for recovery in 2019, in large part due to a series of regulatory reforms opening the country to new investment. Since entering office in 2017, President João Lourenço has focused on cleaning up corruption and implementing aggressive reforms to transform the oil and gas sector and the economy. The reforms, which span from deep changes in tax law to changes in concession contracts and the opening of marginal fields to African independents, have hit the books just as the oil price is stabilizing, and Angola is…
Uganda's First Oil Production Now Pushed To 2022

Uganda's First Oil Production Now Pushed To 2022

The ever-shifting date for Uganda's first oil is now 2022, and not 2020, according to Energy minister Irene Muloni. Addressing journalists in Kampala, Muloni attributed the shift to the delay by the joint venture partners Total, China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) and Tullow to make an investment decision to develop the oil fields in Tilenga and Kingfisher blocks. Minister Muloni said with Tullow selling its stakes to Total and CNOOC, and with the deal still delaying, the final investment decision has also been delayed. Muloni says they now estimate that the final investment decision will be made in the first quarter of 2019, adding that as a consequence the first oil is now expected in 2022. Tullow, Total and CNOOC hold equal stakes of 33.3 per cent in the Lake Albert Basin project covering three blocks - namely Block One, Block Two and Kingfisher. It is not yet clear…
Uganda’s energy minister Irene Muloni

Uganda Gives Tullow Conditional Approval To Farm Out Stakes

Uganda’s energy minister said on Thursday she had given Tullow Oil conditional approval to sell part of its stake in Ugandan oilfields to France’s Total and China’s CNOOC but only after $167 million of tax on the deal is paid. London-listed Tullow agreed early last year to sell Total most of its stake in Ugandan fields for $900 million but CNOOC later exercised its pre-emption rights to buy half of the Tullow assets on sale. “I gave conditional consent for this transaction, subject to payment of tax obligations, as assessed by the Uganda Revenue Authority of about $167 million,” Energy Minister Irene Muloni told a news conference. The three firms currently each hold a 33.3 percent stake in the fields and Tullow is now selling 21.5 percent of its stake, which will be split equally between Total and CNOOC. Tullow spokesman George Cazenove said in an emailed statement Tullow believed…
Uganda And Norway Sign New Oil Deal

Uganda And Norway Sign New Oil Deal

Uganda government and that of Norway have signed an agreement that will strengthen the management of oil and gas in Uganda. The agreement was signed at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development Head Offices in Kampala by Uganda’s Minister of Finance Matia Kasaija and the Norwegian Ambassador to Uganda, Susan Eckey. The Oil for Development Programme is designed to assist developing countries to manage their petroleum resources in a sustainable manner and to target poverty reduction through managing petroleum responsibly, economically, environmentally, and socially. Kasaija commended the Government of Norway for supporting Uganda in Building its capacity to manage it carbon resources that are about to be exploited in the few coming years. “We are committed to follow the principles that the program intends to offer,” said Kasaija. The signing marked the beginning of the programme’s third phase, running from 2018 to 2022. Norway and Uganda have been committed…
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