UGANDA: $20 billion up for grabs Kampala, Uganda | HAGGAI MATSIKO | Ernest Rubondo, the Executive Director, Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU), is optimistic 2018 will be big for Uganda’s oil industry. “The sector will be felt in 2018,” he told The Independent in an interview at his offices at …
Read More »Fuel shortage in oil-rich Angola tests new president
Luanda, Angola | AFP | Angola has suffered a week of fuel shortages, a bitter irony for one of Africa’s leading oil producers, and a hardship that some people blame on opponents of President Joao Lourenco. The majority of petrol stations in the capital Luanda have had long lines of motorists …
Read More »Row over oil money to fight Boko Haram in Nigeria
Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Nigeria’s opposition has rejected a plan to spend a billion dollars of oil money to fight the Boko Haram insurgency in the country’s volatile northeast. Last week, the governor of the southern state of Edo, Godwin Obaseki, told reporters the federal government had been given …
Read More »Answering Uganda’s fuel reserve question
More storage facilities in offing as private players increase storage capacity to match the growing demand Kampala, Uganda | JULIUS BUSINGE | With the current expansion of Uganda’s industry and manufacturing, transport, and services sectors in addition to a rapidly growing population,which are key consumers of petroleum products, one key question …
Read More »COMMENT: The abnormality of oil
Why inflation and monetary-policy adjustments by central banks might not impact its price COMMENT | JIM O’NEIL | Writing about oil prices is always risky. In a January 2015, I suggested that oil prices would not continue to fall, and even predicted that they would “finish the year higher than they …
Read More »Museveni enters fight over $ 20bn oil deals
French domination sparks fight with Chinese Kampala, Uganda | HAGGAI MATSIKO | Oil companies—Total E&P, Tullow Oil and CNOOC—are locked in a bitter fight for control of Uganda’s oil sector. The coveted prizes are deals worth about $20 billion. The three entered a partnership in 2012 when Tullow Oil, which …
Read More »THE INDEPENDENT: Museveni enters fight over $20bn oil deals
IN THE INDEPENDENT: Museveni enters fight over $20bn oil deals Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The top stories in this week’s The Independent. COVER STORY: Museveni enters fight over $20bn oil deals: French domination sparks fight with Chinese THE LAST WORD: Rethinking politics in Africa: How events in Zimbabwe …
Read More »ANALYSIS: How president Lourenco is stamping his authority on Angola
Luanda, Angola | NEWS ANALYSIS | On 15 November, as most of southern Africa’s attentions turned to the military takeover ensuing in Zimbabwe, Angola’s President João Lourenço took a set of dramatic steps. Acting with lightning speed, he fired the entire board of Angola’s state oil company Sonangol, including its chair Isabel dos Santos. Later that day, …
Read More »Chinese oil giant and Chad deny Africa bribery scheme after US probe
Shanghai, China | AFP | Top Chinese oil company CEFC China Energy on Tuesday denied any involvement in an alleged multi-million dollar bribery scandal that US investigators say helped the giant win business advantages in Africa. US officials announced Monday that they had arrested Hong Kong’s former home affairs secretary and …
Read More »US arrests two Chinese oil company reps in Africa bribery scheme
Washington, United States | AFP | US authorities have arrested Hong Kong’s former home affairs secretary and the ex-foreign minister of Senegal for leading a multimillion dollar bribery scheme in Africa on behalf of a top Chinese energy company, with some deals arranged in the halls of the United Nations. …
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