Africa’s oil & gas industry needs to ‘learn to leapfrog’ and harness innovation and technology

Africa’s oil & gas industry needs to ‘learn to leapfrog’ and harness innovation and technology

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – The oil & gas industry in Africa continues to face market challenges arising from the low oil price, competition for revenue growth and local talent together with new expectations from investors and regulators. “Africa’s oil & gas industry is experiencing significant change and upheaval. There are fundamental shifts in companies’ strategies, business models and ways of working,” says Chris Bredenhann, PwC Africa Oil & Gas Advisory Leader. The sustained…

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Nigeria launches $200 mln fund to help local oil and gas firms

Nigeria launches $200 mln fund to help local oil and gas firms

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria launched a fund on Thursday with an initial value of $200 million to support local oil and gas firms, the oil minister said, part of a government drive to improve access to low-cost credit across the economy. The Nigerian Content Development Fund (NCDF) would be financed through allocating the fund one percent of the value of all contracts awarded in the state-run upstream oil and gas industry, Petroleum…

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Standard Bank Seeks to Raise $3 Billion for Ugandan Oil Pipeline

Standard Bank Seeks to Raise $3 Billion for Ugandan Oil Pipeline

KAMPALA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Standard Bank Group Ltd.’s Ugandan unit plans to raise $3 billion for a crude pipeline by the second half of next year as the East African country prepares to start oil production by 2020. Stanbic Bank Uganda was appointed alongside Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. as joint financial adviser for the 1,445-kilometer (898-mile) pipeline, Patrick Mweheire, the chief executive officer of the Kampala, Uganda-based business, said in an interview on…

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Exxon stumps up $2.8 bln for Mozambique gas gateway to Asia

Exxon stumps up $2.8 bln for Mozambique gas gateway to Asia

MAPUTO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Exxon Mobil Corp, the world’s biggest publicly traded oil producer, has agreed to pay Italy’s Eni $2.8 billion for a 25 percent stake in a giant Mozambique gas field to strengthen its position supplying rich Asian markets. Eni is currently the operator of Mozambique’s Area 4 licence which, with 85 trillion cubic feet of gas in place, is one of the world’s largest gas discoveries in recent years. The…

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Gas shortages turn Nigeria’s Dangote to coal to power cement

Gas shortages turn Nigeria’s Dangote to coal to power cement

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria’s Dangote Cement has turned to locally-mined coal to power its plants in a bid to end disruptions caused by gas shortages and lower its production costs. “All our cement plants have been converted to coal,” Aliko Dangote, the company’s billionaire majority owner and chairman, told a business conference on Thursday, adding they would use 12,000 metric tonnes of coal each day. Dangote’s move is unusual in an era…

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