Browsing: Total

Manufacturers turn PRO as US bulldozes Kenya over plastics

In August this year, Kenyans and conservationists everywhere were up in arms after it emerged that the US was arm-twisting Kenya to rescind its tough stance on plastics.

The decision was by the American Chemistry Council which has lobbied the US government during the Covid-19 pandemic to use a US-Kenya trade deal to expand the plastics industry’s footprint across Africa.

According to Greenpeace, documents obtained by Unearthed, it’s investigative journalism platform, show that the same lobby group, which counts Shell, Exxon, and Total among its members, also lobbied against changes to the international Basel Convention, which put new limits on plastic waste entering low and middle-income countries.

Read: KAM, CGK partner to manage post-consumer plastic waste in Kenya

Already, 34 out of 54 countries have adopted some form of regulation to phase out single-use plastic.

Plastic waste management in Kenya

Greenpeace …

The government of Uganda made a deal with Total that will guide the involvement of Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) in the crude oil export pipeline.

According to the agreement, Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) will hold a 15 per cent stake in the project. It also shows in detail how the National Oil Company will finance its operation and participation of the over 1,400km Uganda-Tanzania pipeline.

In a press statement issued by Total, the company said that the agreement to allow the participation of UNOC in the pipeline project was reached between President Yoweri Museveni and Patrick Pouyanne, Total’s chairman and chief executive officer.

The managing director of Total E&P Pierre Jessua, said the decision is a major milestone that will lead to the Final Investment Decision (FID) for Uganda’s oil projects in the coming months.

“We now look forward to concluding a similar HGA (Host Government Agreement) with …

As the Mozambique LNG plant nears US$15B finance – making it the biggest private investment in Africa – two main points of view arise, diametrically opposed:

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• a more cautious short-term assessment identifies the current oversupply of natural gas worldwide, and a steep drop in price; in Asia, for instance, prices dipped so much that importers in China have released themselves from contracts claiming “force majeure”, a clause often invoked during natural disasters or war. Prices in Asia have fallen below US$3 per million British thermal units, whereas in mid-January it was comfortably above US$5/mmbtu.
• long-term growth prospects for the second half of this decade are phenomenally promising, with Royal Dutch Shell stating that demand has already been rising (by 12.5% only last year) and it forecasts that this demand will double by 2040, reaching 700 million tonnes. The fact that

The East African region is closer to its Asian markets giving it a geographical edge over the other producers on the continent.…

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has taken a key interest in Uganda’s economy, whereas the East African economy is likely to grow by 6 per cent in the financial year 2019/2020 (July-June), which is slump from the previous projection of 6.3 per cent.

According to Reuters, the IMF noted the delays to be attributed by the delays in the public investment necessary for kicking off oil production.

On May 9, 2019, IMF statement noted that Uganda’s economy continued on its robust recovery with projected growth of 6.3 per cent in the fiscal 2018/2019, unequivocally highlighting the timely implementation of public infrastructure and oil-related projects would support growth in the medium term.

The Washington DC-based fund said in a statement published on Wednesday that, “Downside risks have increased linked to uncertainty related to oil production,”.

Also, the statement noted that “the electoral period and the complex external context” also weighed on …

The French are coming!

Last Friday Anadarko’s takeover bid by the Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) was officially approved by 99% of its shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting resulting in the combination of two of the largest oil producers in the Houston area. Although this was the largest deal in recent years, it placed Oxy in a challenging position.

The company took some $40 billion in debt to make the deal a reality, including Anadarko’s existing debts.
In addition, early this week the market reacted nervously as Evercore ratings downgraded their stock saying that Anadarko’s acquisition makes the company “larger but less valuable”.

Nevertheless, Anadarko’s Mozambican assets are now on Oxy’s balance sheet and with the recent FID, it is poised to become a reference for African LNG for years to come. Oxy never made secret that the focus of this acquisition was Anadarko’s Permian Basin assets, which are now being …

Tullow Oil PLC (TLW.LN) recorded a strong performance in the first half of 2019 reporting a 91.5 per cent jump in profit, as it continued with its investments in Africa’s oil space.

Profit after tax for the period ended June 30, closed at US$103.2 million up from US$53.9 million in a corresponding period last year.

This is despite a drop in sales revenue which closed the period under review at US$872.3 million; compared with US$905.1 million it recorded a year-earlier.

Operating profit however went up to US$388 million compared to US$300 million in H1 of 2018 with the British oil firm reducing its net debt to US$2.9 billion from US$3.1 billion in June last year.

“Tullow has delivered a good set of financial results in the first half of 2019, with further reductions in net debt and gearing underpinned by strong cash flow generation from our assets despite the lower …

Kenya has made a major step in the commercialisation of its oil ahead of planned exports which will see the East African nation become a major net oil exporter in the region.

In the latest developments, the government and its Joint Venture Partners: Tullow Kenya, Total and Africa Oil Corp, have signed Heads of Terms for the development of the oil fields in the northern part of the country (South Lokichar Basin-Turkana), where exploration and production has been ongoing on small scale.

These Heads of Terms capture all of the key commercial principles related to the implementation of ‘Project Oil Kenya’ and provides both the framework and commercial certainty required to draft the fully termed upstream and midstream agreements, ahead of a Final Investment Decision(FDI).

This is a major and important milestone towards reaching a FDI.

Oil blocks and pipeline

Under the deal, all parties have agreed that the Amosing, …

The first batch is intended to test the international markets

Kenyan crude oil could test the global markets before the end of this year, latest developments indicate, as stocks of the commodity continue to pile up at a storage facility in the port city of Mombasa.

In its latest operational update for the period January 1-April 25, 2019, British firm-Tullow Oil plc (Tullow), says the first export cargo is expected in the third quarter of 2019, even as exploration and drilling intensifies in the Turkana region.

This comes as the Early Oil Pilot Scheme continues to truck 600 barrels of oil per day (bopd) to Mombasa, where 80,000 barrels of oil are being stored ahead of export.

READ:Kenya oil exports gains momentum as Tullow bounces back to profitability

The crude oil from the Turkana oil fields is being stored at the defunct Kenya Petroleum Refineries Ltd (KPRL) (refinery) facility …