Industry Developments

South Africa's Sasol Petroleum Sofala has announced the completion of its first exploration well in blocks 16 and 19 offshore Mozambique.

Japanese conglomerate Mitsui has acquired a 20% stake in the Keta Block offshore Ghana from independent oil and gas explorer Afren. Japanese companies have been increasingly active... 2008-11-21

ExxonMobil and Turkish state-owned Türkiye Petrolleri Anonim Ortakligi (TPAO) have announced an agreement to invest up to US$450mn on exploration projects in the Back Sea.

UK explorer Gulfsands Petroleum has announced that its Yousefieh-1 well in Syria's Block 26 has struck 63 metres (m) of net oil pay in Cretaceous sediments.

Saudi Arabia's state-owned Saudi Aramco has announced that it has cancelled a contract for the development of the Manifa oil field that it awarded to Italy's Snamprogetti, a... 2008-11-19

Iran has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Turkey covering the joint development of Phases 22-24 of the South Pars gas field and setting out plans to transport gas from... 2008-11-18

Wintershall, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Germany's BASF, has announced that it has been awarded operatorship of another exploration licence offshore Qatar.

French oil major Total said on November 12 that the award of construction tenders for its US$10bn Jubail refinery joint venture (JV) with Saudi Aramco has been delayed because of... 2008-11-17

Turkey's state owned oil company Türkiye Petrolleri Anonim Ortakligi (TPAO) is entering the final stage of talks with Anglo-Dutch major Royal Dutch Shell on jointly bidding for... 2008-11-17

State-run National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has signed a development plan for Iran's North Pars gas field with China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNC), according to an NIOC... 2008-11-14