ExxonMobil Declares Force Majeure at Nigerian Field Pumping 200,000 Barrels a Day, Threatening 2026 Budget
Esso Exploration & Production Nigeria Limited, an ExxonMobil affiliate, has declared force majeure on crude exports from its Erha deepwater field, putting about 200,000 barrels a day of Nigerian oil production at risk at a critical moment for the country’s 2026 budget. The Erha field, on Oil Mining Lease 133 roughly 100 kilometres offshore in […]
West Africa’s $25 Billion Mega-Pipeline to Europe Clears Historic Legal Hurdle as ECOWAS Signs On
Member states of the Economic Community of West African States have signed an intergovernmental agreement establishing a legal framework for the $25 billion, 6,900-kilometre African Atlantic Gas Pipeline, one of the most significant milestones for the decade-old project since it was first conceived. The pipeline is designed to carry up to 30 billion cubic metres […]
Africa’s Oil and Gas Investment Has Halved Since 2016, IEA Says, With Five Countries Still Running the Show
Africa’s upstream oil and gas investment fell to $37 billion in 2025 from $68 billion in 2016, with Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Nigeria and Libya together accounting for 70% of investment and 80% of production on the continent, according to the International Energy Agency’s 2026 World Energy Investment report. The IEA said combined investment across those […]
Egypt Deepens Ties With Cyprus on Gold Mining and Gas as FMC Cyprus Resumes Desert Exploration
Egypt’s Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Karim Badawi, met with Cyprus’s Ambassador to Egypt, Polly Ioannou, to discuss strengthening cooperation between the two countries in natural gas and mining. Badawi highlighted reforms to Egypt’s mining investment environment aimed at making the sector more competitive and attracting international investors, pointing to the resumption of gold […]
Saipem Joins Eni’s $4bn Baleine Expansion With Pipeline Deal Off Côte d’Ivoire
Saipem has been selected to deliver rigid pipelines and associated subsea structures for the third phase of Eni’s Baleine oil and gas development off Côte d’Ivoire, joining a growing roster of contractors on one of West Africa’s largest offshore projects. Baleine Phase 3, which reached final investment decision in May, will lift total field production […]
US Investor Quantum Capital Eyes Long-Term Bet on Egypt’s Oil and Gas Sector
Egypt’s Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Karim Badawi, met with a delegation from US-based Quantum Capital Group to discuss establishing a long-term investment portfolio in the country’s oil and gas sector. Badawi pointed to strong upstream investment potential in the Eastern and Western Mediterranean and the Red Sea, and highlighted the ministry’s recent adoption […]
Namibia Clears TotalEnergies to Take Over Galp’s Giant Mopane Discovery
Namibia has approved TotalEnergies’ acquisition of operatorship of Galp Energia’s Mopane discovery in the Orange Basin, another milestone in the country’s emergence as one of the world’s most closely watched offshore oil frontiers. The approval clears the way for TotalEnergies to take over the highly prospective Mopane complex from Portugal’s Galp Energia. As part of […]
Eni and TotalEnergies Green-Light $Multi-Billion Cyprus Gas Project, Egypt Set to Become the Pipeline
Eni and TotalEnergies have taken the final investment decision to develop the Cronos gas project in deep waters offshore Cyprus, targeting first gas to market in 2028, Egypt’s Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources announced. The project will bring online gas from the Cronos field in Block 6, which holds more than 3 trillion cubic […]
Uganda Pushes Back First Oil Again as EACOP Costs Balloon 55% to $5.6 Billion
Uganda’s long-awaited first commercial oil production has slipped again, with operator TotalEnergies now targeting late September 2026 for first crude from the Lake Albert basin, pushed back from the July 2026 timeline the company and its partners had set as recently as April. The project rests on two fields: Tilenga, operated by TotalEnergies, expected to […]
Shell Strikes Oil in Egypt’s Deep Herodotus Basin, Opening a New Frontier Beyond the Region’s Gas Fields
Shell and its partners have discovered crude oil in the Velox-1X exploration well in the North Cleopatra block offshore Egypt, at a total depth of 6,500 metres, marking a departure from the major gas discoveries that have defined the region until now, including Zohr, Leviathan and Tamar. The well, located in the Herodotus basin, points […]