BP

Sudan, United Nations
Total's contractor, South Africa's Solenta Aviation, lands peacekeeping contract

The South African company Solenta Aviation has just been selected by the United Nations to provide transport for the peacekeepers of the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (Unisfa).

The New Guard
Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, DRC, Ethiopia, Libya

Every Wednesday, Africa Intelligence reveals the next generation of movers and shakers in business and politics.

SenegalMamadou Fall Kane, presidential oil adviser, branches out into mining

Guinea-BissauSaico Umaro Embaló, the president's nephew and Turkey envoy

DR CongoArthur Omar Kayumba, Tshisekedi's Grand Inga irritant

EthiopiaWintana Shimelis, in charge of the UK's Diageo in Addis

LibyaAhmed al-Sharkasi, the PM's low-key advisor

Niger
TotalEnergies waves goodbye to distribution and hands over its stations to Star Oil

Owned by the Mauritanian businessman Al Houssein, Star Oil will soon take over all the oil facilities previously in the hands of TotalEnergies.

Angola, Namibia
Namcor leads in race for one of cash-strapped Sonangol's prize assets

Boosted by recent successes on its home market, state-owned oil Namibian oil company Namcor is looking to expand into Angola with backing from two partners. It is hoping to take advantage of the financial difficulties currently being experienced by Sonangol, which is having to sell off some of its prize assets, including block 15/06.

Morocco
Maetel hired to maintain Maghreb-Europe pipeline amid plans to reverse flow

Morocco's hydrocarbons agency, which has taken over management of the Moroccan section of the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline, has entrusted its maintenance to the Spanish firm Maetel.

Algeria
Sonatrach shuns Western firms for Chinese oil companies

State-owned Sonatrach, noting the disaffection of Western firms for the Algerian market, is now focused on doing business with Chinese companies, foremost among them Sinopec.

Morocco
EDF, BP, Excelerate and others still waiting on gas terminal bid results

Numerous global gas giants, as well as local leaders Nareva and Afriquia Gaz, are still waiting on Leila Benali to make her decision on a tender launched in October. But as gas prices skyrocket, the Moroccan energy minister is looking to get the timing right.

Angola
KPMG, Miranda, CMS... the ENI-BP merger mobilised an army of lawyers

Negotiations to merge the activities of ENI and BP in Angola have just been concluded with the creation of a joint venture between the two majors. The deal involved a host of international law firms.

Guinea
Put on notice by Doumbouya, Rio Tinto negotiates next move in Simandou iron

The Conakry authorities' order to the Simandou operators to suspend all activity on the ground until the details of the project's progress have been clarified comes as Rio Tinto is in the process of recruiting and conducting studies on the Guinean iron ore project.

Spotlight | Africa
Ukraine war leaves Russia's Gazprom, Rosneft, Lukoil in limbo in Africa

The conflict in Ukraine will completely block Russian oil companies' access to European, American and Asian lenders. Finding alternative funding, in particular from China, will be difficult.

South Africa
South African refineries dwindle as operators BP, Shell, Total and Sasol pull out

South Africa has only one oil refinery left in operation and even that could close within a year following the string of cancelled projects and accidents on out-dated facilities.

Algeria
Sonatrach thwarts rapprochement between BP and ENI

No transaction between the two European majors is likely to be concluded any time soon in the face of opposition from the Algerian authorities.

Mauritania
ASML Group prospers under Ghazouani despite legal woes

ASML Group continues to bag new contracts in Mauritania despite the fact that its former boss has been indicted and its NMW-SA subsidiary was targeted by a 2020 parliamentary inquiry into the management of public contracts under the Aziz presidency.

Angola, United Kingdom
London schmoozes Luanda with mining investments

BP, the biggest British firm in Angola, is gradually disengaging from the country. London hopes it can remain on good terms with Luanda and secure supplies of strategic minerals for the UK by helping the country diversify its mining sector.

Africa
French IFPEN and TotalEnergies remain the masters of 'oil schools'

The training of oil technicians and engineers, as well as that of energy ministry executives in French-speaking Africa, is generally carried out by instructors from the renowned French Institute of Petroleum.

Africa
From offshore fields to cotton fields, behind the scenes of ENI's biofuel plan

Engaged in a major conversion of its refineries to biofuels, Italian hydrocarbon giant ENI wants to provide this global industry with fuel supplies from non-oil-producing African countries such as Benin and Rwanda, as well as from the key oil-producing countries such as Congo, Angola and Mozambique.