By Miguel Sanz João Lourenço has been president of Angola since September 2017. About one year later, he cemented his hold on power by taking over the chairmanship of the ruling Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA). Although he reshuffled the government, for instance by replacing the transport minister, and the…
Christine Lagarde, managing director for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), completed a recent visit to Angola with a warning that the OPEC nation – Africa’s second largest oil producer, behind Nigeria – needs to shift away from its oil reliance. “Angola has come a long way since the end of…
The Nigerian people were cheated out of an estimated USD$6 billion when a 2011 oil rights deal enriched its own officials but really benefited two international oil majors – Royal Dutch Shell and the Italian Eni – instead of Nigeria, according to a report released Monday by London-based NGO Global…
South Sudan’s oil production is recovering from years of conflict, according to Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth, the country’s Minister of Petroleum, but many obstacles remain even as oilfield operations come back online. Security was top of mind as South Sudan took the spotlight during the Africa Oil & Power conference in…
The African continent is attracting some USD$20 billion in energy investment from government-backed development institutions across the world each year – but far too much of it promotes fossil fuels rather than the shift to renewable energy. That’s according to a new analysis from Oil Change International, an advocacy organization based in…
The central African nation of Congo Brazzaville has become the newest member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), following the conclusion of the OPEC member meeting in Vienna on Friday. It is now the 15th nation to become a member, seven of them on the continent. The…
No one talked very much ahead of the fossil-fuel conference hosted by Pope Francis at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences at the Vatican this weekend: not the participants, not the Vatican, and not the University of Notre Dame in the United States, a Roman Catholic institution that co-sponsored the event….
South Sudan’s Ministry of Mining, Ministry of Petroleum and the state-owned Nile Petroleum Company were among 15 oil-industry entities added to the U.S. Department of Commerce Entity List on Thursday, for what officials say is their funding of the country’s ongoing conflict and actions deemed “contrary to the national security…
The United States has announced it will publish Thursday the names of 15 oil-industry entities in South Sudan that U.S. officials say are supporting the country’s ongoing crisis with their revenues. The decision to place the South Sudanese businesses on the U.S. Department of Commerce Entity List means licensing will…
Executives of Royal Dutch Shell and Italian oil major Eni will stand trial in Milan on corruption charges tied to a widely investigated Nigerian oil rights deal dating back to 2011. An Italian judge on Wednesday set a March 5 date for the case against Eni’s current CEO Claudio Descalzi,…
Officials in Equatorial Guinea say ExxonMobil has struck oil with the Avestruz-1 well drilled by the company in October. It’s now being assessed for its commercial potential. The site is about 160 kilometers off Malabo, in an area adjacent to the Zafiro field in the country’s maritime area to the…
A corruption case revealed this week in the United States led to the arrest of the former foreign minister of Senegal while implicating high-level African leaders in two countries – and casting a new shadow on China’s role on the continent as Beijing advances its Belt and Road Initiative. The…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
Angola’s new president announced Wednesday the removal of Isabel dos Santos as board president of Sonangol, the state-controlled oil company. She has been replaced by Carlos Saturnino, according to ANGOP, Angola’s news agency. Dos Santos, the daughter of longtime former president Jose Eduardo dos Santos, was removed by President João…
The African Development Bank (AfDB) said Tuesday that it has not decided to call off loans to Nigeria, countering widespread media reports that the support for the West African nation’s ailing economy was withdrawn. “The African Development Bank is highly encouraged by the economic recovery of Nigeria from recession and…
Africa Oil Week begins Monday in Cape Town, with energy ministers and senior officials from a host of African nations participating. Joining them is United States Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, who traveled this weekend to South Africa and will deliver an address Tuesday on global energy policy and security….