Dar es Salaam — The government is expected to start an environmental impact assessment (EIA) at the end of this month on land where a $30 billion (Sh64.4 trillion) liquefied Continue Reading
African nation’s crude production already reduced by civil war Group observing peace deal sees possibility of larger battles Clashes between South Sudanese forces that re-erupted last month could escalate into Continue Reading
CEO met Mozambican President Nyusi last week to discuss deal Exxon also in parallel talks with Anadarko over stakes Exxon Mobil Corp. is in advanced negotiations with Eni SpA over Continue Reading
Government’s death toll may be ‘tip of iceberg,’ Ladsous says Global body may reassess, strengthen mandate for UN mission The United Nations peacekeeping chief said the situation in South Sudan Continue Reading
Standard Bank, Old Mutual temporarily close Juba operations Kenya’s KCB moves staff to safety and reduces branch activity The biggest banks and insurers in Africa, including Old Mutual Plc and Continue Reading
South Sudan’s leaders are in emergency talks after days of violence between rival factions in the capital left at least 272 people dead and stoked fears of a return to Continue Reading
Fourth day of violence after hundreds killed over weekend U.S. orders evacuation of non-essential personnel from Juba Gunfire rocked South Sudan’s capital for the fourth day as the deaths of Continue Reading
Gunfire rocked South Sudan’s capital for the fourth day as the deaths of hundreds of people in violence over the weekend raises the specter of the oil-producing African nation returning Continue Reading
Some independent analysts say the recently discovered helium gas in Lake Rukwa could be worth $3.5 billion. The analysts from Global Risk Insights, however, say the discovery of 54.2 billion Continue Reading
Helium Spring There’s a global helium shortage. It’s not among the widely publicized problems of the world, but there is undoubtedly a helium deficit – the noble gas that most Continue Reading
Uganda could dramatically overhaul its economy with the right management policies in place by the time oil starts flowing in 2018, the World Bank said. “If oil resources are well Continue Reading
Lokichar Basin Kenyan officials said oil from the Lokichar Basin will begin reaching foreign markets at a rate of 2,000 barrels of crude per day by July 2017, according to Continue Reading
The Ugandan and Tanzanian governments are trying to fast-track a $4 billion oil pipeline that would connect landlocked Uganda to foreign markets even though construction won’t start in August as Continue Reading
With over 57 trillion cubic feet of gas, the government has boasted of a huge capacity that can accommodate serious investors in petrochemical manufacturing. Industry, Trade and Investment Minister Charles Continue Reading
Construction workers building a new bridge against the skyline of Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, in April…. Along Africa’s resource-rich eastern coast, the promise of gas-fired prosperity is wafting into an uncertain Continue Reading
South Sudan’s transitional government has announced it will resume oil production by July after a halt of more than two years during a bloody civil war for control of the Continue Reading
Mozambique is heading towards a major default on outstanding loans related to offshore natural gas infrastructure, symbolizing the deflating hopes for a major source of new natural gas production from Continue Reading
Kenya has created an extra 17 new oil exploration blocks, bringing its total to 63 and aims to auction them in a licensing round in 2017, Kenyan newspapers quoted Ministry Continue Reading
A Canadian oil company with a focus on Africa said an independent survey of its holdings in Kenya led it to increase its reserve estimate by 24 percent. Africa Oil Continue Reading
Officials from Uganda and Tanzania will in the coming days meet to fine-tune the work plan for the development of the proposed Shs11 trillion crude oil export pipeline. The 1,400km Continue Reading
A statement from the government in Uganda said a decision was made by a regional consortium to build a crude oil pipeline through Tanzania. Delegates from Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Continue Reading
Critical decision over the weekend on one of the world’s most-watched infrastructure developments — in the fast-emerging oil and gas basins of Eastern Africa. That came from a meeting of Continue Reading
Kampala — Tanzania will charge Uganda a tariff/transit fee of Shs40,321 ($12.2) for each barrel of oil going through the crude oil pipeline to Tanga port at the Indian Ocean Continue Reading
The oil pipeline route puzzle has been solved, with Uganda choosing to export her crude oil to the East African coast through Tanzania and not Kenya, The Observer can reveal. Continue Reading
Even as drought and the effects of climate change grew visible across this land, the Kariba Dam was always a steady, and seemingly limitless, source of something rare in Africa: Continue Reading
A toxic convergence of national, corporate and personal interest on two competing oil pipeline routes is threatening regional integration in a dramatic saga involving Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Kenya and Continue Reading
Tanzania is highly optimistic of striking an agreement with Uganda over construction of the 1,410-kilometre crude oil pipeline from Hoima, given the former’s competitive advantage. It is against this backdrop Continue Reading
Exxon Mobil Corp. is in advanced talks to acquire a stake in a giant Mozambique natural gas development project from Italy’s Eni SpA, a sign that major oil companies are Continue Reading
South Sudan’s oil ministry has concluded that oil production is in quick decline, and future production will not reach even half of its peak 2010 levels even if all the Continue Reading
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta hosts his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni in the capital, Nairobi, on Monday for talks on a proposed pipeline to ferry crude from oilfields being developed by Continue Reading
Construction of the Tanzania-Uganda crude oil pipeline begins in August and will be complete in two years, even as Kenya negotiates to have the pipeline go north through Lamu. The Continue Reading
Total SA has funds to build a pipeline linking oil fields in landlocked Uganda with a port on Tanzania’s Indian Ocean coast, the Tanzanian government said, after its president met Continue Reading
Kenyan government officials are set to hold a meeting with their Ugandan counterparts to resolve outstanding issues with the hope of influencing the proposed crude oil pipeline route infavour of Continue Reading
Construction of a $4 billion (about Sh8.7 trillion) crude oil pipeline from Lake Albert-Kabaale in Uganda to Tanga Port will commence in August this year, Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) Continue Reading
The leaders of Uganda and Tanzania agreed at a private meeting on Tuesday to build a crude pipeline across their countries, connecting landlocked oilfields to the Indian Ocean, the Tanzanian Continue Reading
To boost gas use across southern Africa A cooperation agreement has been signed to build a $6 billion, 2,600 km pipeline to send natural gas from offshore Mozambique to South Continue Reading
As drought continues to cripple its hydropower plants, Tanzania is struggling to produce enough electricity – and is moving toward using more fossil fuels to make up the shortfall. Hydropower Continue Reading
Leaders from Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan have signed an agreement designed to assuage Egyptian worries over the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Egyptian Streets reported Dec. 29. Egypt Continue Reading
Tullow Oil Plc gained after a successful well increased the potential size of oil resources the Africa-focused explorer has discovered in Kenya. The Etom-2 well in northern Kenya encountered 102 Continue Reading
Tullow Oil said it found no commercial prospects in frontier basin in northern Kenya despite earlier optimism and results. Photo courtesy of Tullow Oil LONDON, Nov. 17 (UPI) — Despite earlier optimism about the reserve potential in frontier African oil and gas basins, Tullow Oil said it came up empty handed in its efforts in Kenya. Tullow, which has headquarters in London, said it didn’t find any hydrocarbons worth exploring further at a frontier, or wildcat, well in northern Kenya. "While this wildcat well did not find commercial hydrocarbons, it provides valuable data as we assess the wider prospectivity of this basin," Angus McCoss, the company’s exploration director, said in a statement. Tullow is placing bets on emerging basins in Africa, notably offshore developments in Ghana. Like its peers, the company said it’s been a "difficult year" for energy companies working through a period of historically low oil prices. […]
Some 11 million children are at risk from hunger, disease and water shortages in east and southern Africa because of the strengthening El Nino weather phenomenon, the UN children’s charity has said. It has caused the worst drought in more than 30 years in Ethiopia, Unicef said. Its effects could also be "particularly harsh" in Somalia, amid fears of flooding, it warned. El Nino is caused by Pacific Ocean warming. "The weather phenomenon, among the strongest on record, is likely to cause more floods and droughts, fuel Pacific typhoons and cyclones and affect more areas if it continues strengthening as forecast over the coming months," Unicef said in a statement . It said 8.2 million people in Ethiopia faced food insecurity, while an estimated 350,000 children needed treatment for severe acute malnutrition. "To make matters worse, the weather phenomenon may also bring flooding to some areas of the country […]
Nairobi — Kenya has shrugged off fears over a decision by neighbouring Uganda to consider building a crude oil pipeline through Tanzania. Kenya brushed aside concerns that Uganda’s plan, if it proves cheaper than the alternatives, would scuttle its infrastructural plans for its own oil pipeline. Acting Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia told the Nation on Wednesday that while Kenya is "keenly keeping a close watch on the unfolding events in Uganda", it would go ahead with its own infrastructural plans "undeterred". "We are going according to our own plans. Nothing has changed," said Mr Macharia in Nairobi. Last month, it emerged that Kenya’s prospects of a crude oil pipeline through Hoima-Lokichar-Lamu could be crushed after Uganda signed an agreement with Tanzania to explore the Tanga route. Uganda, Tanzania, the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation and Total E&P Uganda signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) outlining new pipeline arrangements. The […]
Fidgety oil companies and investors heaved a sigh of relief in August when Kenya and Uganda announced they had picked a route for the world’s longest heated pipeline. Finally, there was a plan for getting the estimated 1 billion barrels in Kenya’s remote northwest out of the country. The proposed route cut from northern Uganda’s Albertine region, into Kenya, through the Lokichar Basin, and then southeast before terminating in Kenya’s coastal Lamu County. It would have allowed Kenya to share the cost of piping oil with Uganda, which has 6.5 billion barrels of its own oil that it wants to get to market. But this week Uganda turned around and announced it had instead signed an agreement with Tanzania and Total (which is exploring in Uganda) to consider a pipeline for Ugandan oil through Tanzania, bypassing Kenya altogether. Proposed oil pipelines in East Africa Proposed oil pipelines in East […]
JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — Fifty-two soldiers and rebels have been killed in recent fighting in South Sudan’s contested state of Unity, said a military official Saturday, blaming rebels for the latest violation of a peace deal signed last month. Rebel forces have attacked positions held by government troops, killing 14 of them and wounding 42 others, military spokesman Col. Philip Aguer told The Associated Press. Government troops have killed 38 rebels and have captured two others along with 50 rocket-propelled grenades, he said. The clashes, which started Monday and continued Friday, took place in Leer and Koch, he said. The death toll of 52 was for fighting in Koch and not Leer, which government troops had to abandon under intense fire from the rebels. Aguer gave no civilian death toll from the fighting. Rebels are also mobilizing to attack government troops in parts of Upper Nile state, he […]
Kenya and Uganda ended months of debate in August to sign an agreement on an oil pipeline costing almost $4 billion. Finding the money to build it and companies to start pumping crude may be a harder task. The 1,500-kilometer (930-mile) pipeline is key for exporting the region’s crude when production finally begins — 2018 in Uganda’s case. With oil prices languishing below $50 a barrel, there’s little incentive for companies such as Tullow Oil Plc, Africa Oil Corp., China’s CNOOC Ltd. and France’s Total SA to keep investing. “The lower oil price has created a great deal more of uncertainty around future oil production, given that additional capital expenditure will be required to make oil production a reality,” Razia Khan, head of Africa economic research at Standard Chartered Plc in London, said in an e-mailed response to questions. Just before prices collapsed, oil held great promise for both […]
Kenya started talks with neighboring Uganda on the financing and construction of an oil pipeline that will link the two countries and ferry crude produced by companies including Tullow Oil Plc, the Kenyan Energy Ministry said. Discussions that also looked at project time frames and involved officials from both East African countries began this week, Joseph Njoroge, the ministry’s principal secretary, said in a phone interview from Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, on Wednesday. The negotiations follow an announcement by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Aug. 10 that the route for the conduit had been agreed after months of debate. “We have started working out the details together with the Ugandans,” Njoroge said. “We will also engage as many stakeholders as we can. We want this project to take off immediately.” Tullow has found oil in both countries, with Uganda estimating finds at 6.5 billion barrels and Kenya at 600 million […]
South Sudan, one of the world’s most corrupt and least developed countries, prepared an $850 million budget to crush a rebellion shortly after the insurgency began almost two years ago, the United Nations said. The supply of Israeli automatic rifles, Chinese missiles, Russian attack helicopters and amphibious vehicles “has been instrumental in prolonging and escalating the war,” now in its 21st month, and enabled large-scale violations of humanitarian law, according to a yet to be published interim report by the UN Panel of Experts on South Sudan. South Sudan’s pursuit of “greater air and riverine capacity” is part of a strategy against a mobile insurgency that relies on small arms, the UN says in the report, obtained by Bloomberg from a person who asked not to be identified because it hasn’t yet been made public. South Sudan army spokesman Philip Aguer said the military needed more weapons, gunships and […]
Kenya and neighboring Uganda agreed on the route of a planned oil pipeline, ending months of debate on the link that will export crude from companies including Tullow Oil Plc. The pipeline will pass through the Lokichar basin in northern Kenya, Manoah Esipisu, spokesman for Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, said Monday by phone from the Ugandan capital, Kampala. The countries had also discussed building the link through southern Kenya and the capital, Nairobi. The agreed design will be the cheapest to develop, according to an e-mailed statement from the Ugandan presidency. Tullow has found oil in both countries, with Uganda estimating finds at 6.5 billion barrels and Kenya at 600 million barrels . The planned $4.5 billion pipeline to the Indian Ocean will allow the U.K. company to start exports from joint ventures with Africa Oil Corp. and Total SA. China’s Cnooc Ltd. is also a partner in Uganda. […]
Sudan oil and gas minister Mohamed Awad Zayid has revealed that Sudanese security forces have dug trenches around oil fields on the border with South Sudan to fend off acts of sabotage. "The trenches will protect the oil fields from sabotage," Zayid was quoted as saying by the state-owned Sudan Vision daily Friday. Zayid did not mention the oil fields nor the group or country that Sudan suspects of sabotaging the vital facilities. But the nearest oil fields, located on the Sudan-South Sudan border, is Heglig, which produces more than half of Sudan’s current total of 133,000 b/d of crude oil. Article continues below… Platts Global Alert is a complete real-time information service for the global energy industry, providing breaking reports of deals done, price indicators for crude and products and more than 200 end-of-day assessments. Heglig, whose ownership is being disputed by both Sudan and South Sudan, is […]
Last week, the ministry of Energy and Mineral Development released a list of 19 multinational companies that expressed interest in taking up licenses to explore for oil in the Albertine graben. However, the list reveals one glaring reality: Uganda has failed to attract a major company into its oil industry. By most measures, all the companies that have expressed interest are what one would call junior firms, which are more willing to take risks with exploring for oil in wildcat wells. Many of the firms are from Nigeria, South Africa, United Arab Emirates (EAE), and USA. Petroleum directorate officials had said global oil companies such as Exxon Mobil and Shell had shown interest in coming to Uganda, after it had been de-risked with success stories from companies such as Heritage Oil and Tullow Oil. Releasing the list of companies on Wednesday, the permanent secretary in the ministry of Energy, […]
