September 2020: The government of The Gambia has reached a mutual agreement with Norwegian oil firm PetroNor to settle the Blocks A1 and A4 oil licences dispute. Under the terms of the settlement agreement, PetroNor will regain the Block A4 licence, sign a 30-year lease under new terms, and relinquish any claims related to the Block A1 licence.
August 2020: US independent oil firm Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) has halted its plans to sell its Algerian oil assets to Total. Oxy has now declared its Algerian assets as core assets, and will continue to market the sale of its Ghanaian oil assets.
July 2020: Cairn Energy has agreed to sell its 40% interest in the RSSD (Rusque, Sangomar and Sangomar Deep) project offshore deep water Senegal to Russian oil company Lukoil for 300 MMUSD cash plus up to 100 MMUSD in bonuses post production. The transaction is subject approval by the government of Senegal. First oil production is expected in 2023.
May 2020: A hydraulic workover rig, Grace-1 HWU, working on the Ororo-1 well in OML-95 offshore Nigeria caught fire after blow out preventer (BOP) failure and loss of well control. Sources indicate that the field operator’s (Guarantee Petroleum) licence was revoked by Nigeria’s oil regulator in the middle of the workover operation and before the fire. Ororo has not produced oil till date.
April 2020: Tullow Oil plc has agreed to sell its oil assets in Uganda to Total for 575 MMUSD plus add-ons. The sale includes Tullow’s entire interests in the undeveloped blocks 1, 1A, 2, and 3A, and the proposed East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) System.
January 2020: Petrobras has sold its equities in the Agbami, Akpo, and Egina deepwater fields (offshore Nigeria) to Africa Oil for 1.454 billion USD. The Agbami oil field is located in OML-127 and 128, and is operated by Chevron. The Akpo gas-condensate field and Egina oil field are located in OML-130, and are operated by Total.