Menas Associates

The near-perennial rumours that BG may sell its 60% stake share in Tanzania’s Offshore Block 3 have resurfaced this week. The Sunday Times reports that BG is quietly searching for a buyer and ...

http://menasassociates.blogspot.com/2014/08/tanzania-bg-exit-rumours-resurface.html

On 25 July, the Kyrgyz and Kazakh authorities conducted a new round of consultations in Bishkek about Kyrgyzstan’s forthcoming membership in the Eurasian Economic Union of Kazakhstan, Russia a...

http://menasassociates.blogspot.com/2014/08/caspian-bishkek-looks-to-duty-free.html

Mozambique’s long awaited petroleum law has been approved by the parliament with substantial amendments by MPs who argued that the changes will strengthen the role of the Mozambican state in o...

http://menasassociates.blogspot.com/2014/08/mozambican-parliament-approves-new.html

Kazakhstan’s new deputy energy minister, Uzakbay Karabalin, has told the media that the restart of commercial production at Kashagan is planned for 2016. In his view, this optimistic scenario ...

http://menasassociates.blogspot.com/2014/08/kazakhstan-kashagan-restart-unlikely.html

Oil exports finally resumed this week from the eastern port of Ras Lanuf following one year of closure. On 12 August, a 670,000 barrel cargo left the port for Italy. The shipment was chartered b...

http://menasassociates.blogspot.com/2014/08/libya-oil-exports-resume-from-ras-lanuf.html

The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has denied breaking environmental rules in Chad’s oil sector and demanded the Chadian government drops its US$1.2 billion claim at an arbitratio...

http://menasassociates.blogspot.com/2014/08/developments-in-us12billion-chad-cnpc.html

Tripartite discussions between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan over the future of Ethiopia’s planned Grand Renaissance Dam project are due to be held in Khartoum on 24 August. The project has bee...

http://menasassociates.blogspot.com/2014/08/egypt-to-reveal-new-vision-for.html

Oil production at Iraqi Kurdistan's largest-producing field is set to rise to as much as 140,000 b/d by the end of August despite the Islamic State’s advances into the region, the General Mana...

http://menasassociates.blogspot.com/2014/08/oil-production-at-iraqi-kurdistans.html

President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi announced, 5 August, a new plan to build additional channels on the Suez Canal which would deepen and widen the current passageway and construct new channels to sp...

http://menasassociates.blogspot.com/2014/08/egypt-el-sisi-announces-new-mega.html

The newly elected House of Representatives pressed ahead as planned and held its opening session on 4 August in Tobruk. Around 158 members of the 188 representatives who have been elected to the...

http://menasassociates.blogspot.com/2014/08/libya-house-of-representatives-begins.html

Mozambique's parliament has approved an amnesty law that will allow Afonso Dhlaklama, leader of the opposition Renamo party, to leave his hideaway in the bush, sign a peace accord with President...

http://menasassociates.blogspot.com/2014/08/mozambique-amnesty-allows-renamo-leader.html

Talisman Energy, Canada's fifth largest independent oil and gas producer, said on 12 August that it still plans to sell all or a portion of its exploration properties in Iraq's Kurdistan region ...

http://menasassociates.blogspot.com/2014/08/iraq-talisman-energy-preparing-its.html

Iran’s Deputy Oil Minister for International Affairs has said that Iran is ready to supply Europe with gas via the previously aborted Nabucco pipeline, adding that two European countries have ...

http://menasassociates.blogspot.com/2014/08/iran-ready-to-revive-nabucco-pipeline.html

Menas Associates understands that opposition politician Zitto Kabwe is considering announcing his defection from CHADEMA to a newly established party, the Alliance for Change and Transparency (A...

http://menasassociates.blogspot.com/2014/08/tanzania-chadema-politician-zitto-kabwe.html

UAE-based energy firm Dana Gas has released a statement that an international tribunal has issued a favourable ruling in the dispute over a natural gas supply contract between Iran and Dana’s ...

http://menasassociates.blogspot.com/2014/08/dana-gas-favourable-ruling-in-iran-and.html

An American employee of Texas-based energy company Apache Corp has been killed in an apparent carjacking in the western Egyptian desert, officials said on 10 August. "The victim was a long-ti...

http://menasassociates.blogspot.com/2014/08/egypt-american-energy-worker-killed-in.html

The apparent stability and growing prosperity of Iraq’s more liberal and pro-business Kurdistan region has been undermined in recent weeks as Islamic State insurgents make significant advances...

http://menasassociates.blogspot.com/2014/08/iraq-iocs-in-kurdistan-region-see.html

Chad is reportedly making preparations to take China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) to an arbitration court in Paris after compensation talks stalled. Chad has levied a claim for US$1.2 b...

http://menasassociates.blogspot.com/2014/08/chad-to-take-cnpc-to-paris-arbitration.html

In a meeting with Southeast Asian nations this weekend, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will press for a voluntary freeze on actions aggravating territorial disputes in the South China Sea, i...

http://menasassociates.blogspot.com/2014/08/south-east-asia-washington-hopes-asean_69.html

Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta, stated in a 2 August interview that Kenya will impose capital-gains and windfall taxes on oil, gas and mining companies within months to ensure the East African...

http://menasassociates.blogspot.com/2014/08/kenya-president-kenyatta-to-impose.html

At least 300 members of the opposition MDM party have defected in Nampula Province because of an alleged lack of transparency in selecting candidates for MP. Senior MDM member Jose Manuel de ...

http://menasassociates.blogspot.com/2014/08/300-members-of-opposition-mdm-party.html

Max Petroleum’s shares have soared in value since the 4 August announcement that the influential Assaubayev family is taking a majority stake in the company. It is hoped that the placing will ...

http://menasassociates.blogspot.com/2014/08/caspian-region-assaubayev-family.html

Sunday 27 July was a prodigious day in Cameroon after Boko Haram’s unprecedented and deadly attack upon the homes of two key Cameroonian politicians in the country’s Far-North Region.  B...

http://menasassociates.blogspot.com/2014/08/boko-haram-abducts-wife-of-president.html

Menas Associates has learned from one of our sources in Arusha that the 7 July attack on the Verma Restaurant at Arusha’s Gymkhana Club may have been related to a feud within the Tanzanite gem...

http://menasassociates.blogspot.com/2014/08/7-july-grenade-attack-in-arusha-linked.html

On 30 July we reported that Sonatrach’s CEO, Abdelhamid Zerguine, had been sacked and replaced by Said Sahnoun, the former Vice President for Production. Sahnoun will be Sonatrach’s ninth CE...

http://menasassociates.blogspot.com/2014/08/algeria-sonatrachs-latest-scandal.html