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Uganda takes major steps with oil majors

Ugandan Energy Minister Irene Muloni said Thursday signing agreements with international oil companies gives the country significant production opportunities. Muloni said Uganda is close to becoming a major oil producer with the signing of memorandums of understanding with Chinese, French and British oil companies. "The signing of the MOU is therefore a significant step toward the production of Uganda’s discovered oil and gas resources," she was quoted by the Ugandan newspaper the Independent as saying. Tullow Oil, a British exploration company involved in the agreements, published a report last year on its Ugandan developments. It said it has uncovered more than 1 billion barrels of oil in Uganda since operations began and most of that was in the country’s Lake Albert basin. Muloni said the agreements gives Uganda a "harmonized commercialization plan for the development" of its oil resources. She said the government […]

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Uganda Signs Deal With Foreign Companies to Develop Oil Sector

The government of Uganda has signed a long awaited deal with foreign oil companies to develop its oil sector, bringing to an end several years of protracted talks and opening the way for the development of the country’s crude oil reserves. The deal is based on a Memorandum of Understanding with U.K.’s Tullow Oil PLC, France’s Total SA and China’s Cnooc Ltd. cooperating on plans to develop the country’s oil sector. Those plans include a 60,000 barrels-a-day oil refinery, an oil export pipeline to Kenya’s northern port of Lamu and a crude-fired electricity plant in Uganda’s oil region, Irene Muloni, Uganda’s energy and minerals minister, told reporters in Kampala Thursday. The agreement between the energy multinationals and the Ugandan government could result in up to $15 billion to $17 billion in new investment, company officials said. The new investment will go toward the development of up to 20 […]

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Uganda Agrees on Deal to Develop Oil Sector

The government of Uganda has reached a deal with foreign oil companies to develop its oil industry, the country’s energy and minerals minister said Friday, ending a nearly three-year impasse and opening the way for a $15 billion investment. The government has agreed the terms of a Memorandum of Understanding with U.K.’s Tullow Oil PLC, France’s Total SA and China’s Cnooc Ltd. for the commercialization of the oil sector. The plans consists of a 60,000 barrels-day refinery, a crude export pipeline to Kenya’s northern port of Lamu and a crude-fired electricity plant in Uganda’s oil region, Irene Muloni said in a statement obtained by The Wall Street Journal Friday. The development paves way for a multibillion-dollar investment to develop the country’s oil fields, which are believed to contain up to 3.5 billion barrels of crude. Uganda contains sub-Sahara Africa’s fourth-largest amount of oil reserves, behind South Sudan, Angola […]

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Cease-Fire Pact Signed in South Sudan

The South Sudanese government and rebel forces signed a cease-fire agreement Thursday, a step toward ending more than a month of fighting that threatened to tear apart the world’s youngest nation. There were few immediate details about the deal, but negotiators said it hewed to a draft agreement distributed to media earlier in the week. Under the draft agreement, both sides agreed to freeze their troops in place and cease military operations, including ammunition resupplies. It also required them to protect civilians from violence, stop hostile statements in the media and open up corridors for humanitarian aid. Thursday’s pact marks the first sign of a potential peace in South Sudan since fighting broke out in mid-December. At the time, President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy of attempting a coup. A rebellion then erupted, eventually drawing into the conflict neighboring Uganda, which has sent troops to help South […]

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With oil at stake, South Sudan’s crisis matters to its customers

At stake is one of the African continent’s most lucrative deposits of oil, generating billions of dollars for the world’s youngest nation and its partners. “The big powers, especially the Chinese, have a huge stake in this,” said Leben Moro, a professor at the Center for Peace and Development Studies at the University of Juba in South Sudan’s capital. “The oil could be a savior, but if there is more fighting over the oil, it could become a curse.” A dispute over political power, not oil, triggered clashes in Juba last month. But the conflict quickly turned into a fight over South Sudan’s strategic oil-rich regions. The capitals of two of these areas, Bentiu and Malakal, have changed hands more than once. Battles also have been fought in Bor, the capital of a region with untapped oil reserves that are potentially lucrative. “The opposition hopes that by capturing the […]

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South Sudan Finds Friend in Old Enemy Sudan as Revolt Rages

As the conflict between South Sudan ’s government and rebels worsens, President Salva Kiir has found succor from an unexpected source: Sudan, the country that southerners fought against for two decades to win independence. Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir’s motivation in helping his former enemies is based on the need to maintain oil flows from the south, according to analysts including Magdi El Gizouli at the Nairobi-based Rift Valley Institute. His government is also concerned that instability along its border will hamper the battle against its own rebels, he said. “For the first time in history they are interested, even more than the South Sudanese themselves, in retaining stability in South Sudan in some form under a government that is ready to do business, and Kiir is ready to do business,” El Gizouli said Jan. 15 by phone from Freiburg, Germany . Since South […]

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South Sudan Rebels Seize Oil-Rich State’s Capital Amid Talks

South Sudanese rebels said they captured Malakal, the capital of oil-rich Upper Nile state, as talks aimed at securing a cease-fire in the nation’s four-week-old conflict continued for a second day. Opposition forces loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar seized Malakal today after 72 hours of “heavy fighting,” rebel spokesman Brigadier-General Lul Ruai Koang said in a phone interview. The fighters now plan to recapture Bentiu, capital of neighboring Unity state, “within days,” he said. The rebels lost control of Bentiu on Jan. 10 when government forces advanced on the town. South Sudanese President Salva Kiir ’s spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny said fighting was continuing in Malakal after the rebels “pushed our forces” back to the airport. “It’s not yet clear who’s in control,” he said. Government and rebel negotiators held another round of talks in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa , aimed at ending hostilities that broke […]

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200 fleeing S. Sudan violence die after boat sinks

AP Photo JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — A boat carrying civilians desperately fleeing heavy violence in South Sudan sank while crossing the Nile River, killing some 200 people, a military official said Tuesday, as fighting between rebels and government forces moved closer to the capital. Warfare in the world’s newest state has displaced more than 400,000 people since mid-December, with the front lines constantly shifting as loyalist troops and renegade forces gain and lose territory in battles often waged along ethnic lines. A boat fleeing violence on the Nile carrying mostly women and children sank on Saturday, killing at least 200 people, according to Lt. Col Aguer, the South Sudanese military spokesman. He also said there was fighting about 70 kilometers (45 miles) north of the South Sudanese capital of Juba. Heavy fighting erupted in Malakal, the capital of oil-producing Upper Nile state, which renegade forces briefly held before […]

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South Sudan Army Retakes Key Oil Town

South Sudan’s army retook a strategic oil town Tuesday after a rebel incursion sent thousands fleeing and imperiled crude output in sub-Saharan Africa’s third-largest oil producer. "By 4 p.m. the rebels were fleeing Malakal," said South Sudan’s military spokesman, Col. Philip Aguer. The fighting around Malakal, which began on Saturday and continued through Tuesday, caused civilians to abandon their homes and some to join rebel forces, according to Col. Aguer. "They were agitated to come and attack Malakal and take whatever property they can as an incentive," he said. Complicating Malakal’s defense, soldiers at a base outside the town in recent days have defected to join the rebels loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar in their fight against the government led by South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir. Fighting has raged since a political dispute between Messrs. Machar and Kiir last month sparked a conflict between army […]

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Pirate attacks dropped 40 percent since 2011 peak

The seafaring association says that pirate attacks at sea have dropped 40 percent since their peak in 2011 thanks to a huge drop in attacks off Somalia. The International Maritime Bureau says that there were only seven attacks and attempted attacks off Somalia last year, down from 49 in 2012 and 160 in 2011, the epidemic’s peak. The Somalia piracy problem was cracked after armed guards were placed on ships and because of an increase in patrols by international naval forces. The maritime bureau said more than 300 people were taken hostage at sea last year. Indonesia saw the most pirate attacks last year with 106. Nigeria was second with 31. © 2014 The Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use . Latest News Latest Winter […]

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