May 2021 Africa Activity Update

Editor's Summary - Peter Elliott

Exploration drilling onshore Africa remains constant in the Western Desert in Egypt, with signs of revival offshore West Africa. Apache, GPC, bp and Eni are drilling in Egypt, while the bid round continues there. Eni and Total are drilling offshore Ghana and Angola respectively, while Panoro continue to drill up the Dussafu Block offshore Gabon. There are a good number of high impact wildcat wells planned for later this year, including Gabon, Namibia and South Africa.

The Africa Editor Peter Elliott has interviewed a number of major exploration players to highlight some of these wells in the Africa Independents Forum Digital Editions, part of Hyve’s Africa Oil Week offering.
Onshore Gabon Perenco and Assala have been trading assets to rebalance their portfolios there.

Bid Rounds continue in Somalia and Angola, with extensions announced for Gabon.

New opportunities are available with Heritage in Ghana, adjacent to Jubilee, where a single well discovery will unlock a unitisation agreement with the Jubilee field. Aker are seeking partners for their Pecan development immediately south.

May Monthly Highlights

Exploration Drilling

Egypt: Dapetco have tested oil with the SWA 10-1X well and are drilling the SWA 1-4X and SWA 1-3X wells in the South West Alamein license.
Morocco: Onshore, Predator is commencing civil works in preparation for the spud of MOU-1 in June.
Nigeria: Sinopec is planning a drilling campaign with SinoOcean Victory to fulfil exploration commitments after the President reinstated oil block permits that were cancelled last month.

Appraisal / Development

Democratic Republic of Congo: Perenco is drilling the TS-36 well on the Tschiende field.
Gabon: Offshore, Panoro completed the DHIBM-2 appraisal well on Dussafu but this step out well on Hibiscus was dry. The firm is planning the Hibiscus North well, to the northeast.
Morocco: SDX has spud OYF-3, the first of a three appraisal/development well campaign.

Deals

Angola: Eni and bp have entered into a non-binding MOU to progress detailed discussions on combining their upstream portfolios.
South Africa: Impact Oil & Gas has announced the completion of the acquisition of 90% and operatorship of Area-2 offshore.
Tunisia: CDD (subsidiary of Zenith) acquired 100% of the issued share capital of EPT (subsidiary of Candax) relating to their 100% interest in El Bibane and Robbana concessions.

Licencing Rounds

Gabon: The Ministry of Petroleum, Gas and Mining has announced 30th June 2021 as a new closing date of tender submission for the 12th Round.

New Ventures

Ghana: Aker Energy is seeking investment partners on the DWT/CPT offshore Ghana Block where they plan to develop the Pecan South field. Partners include Lukoil, Fueltrade and GNPC.
Various: NVentures Director Peter Elliott interviewed six top executives from the Africa E&P scene, check out the recorded interviews to get an insight into these important upcoming wildcats and farm-in opportunities.