CHANGES AT ELF AND ITS SUB-CONTRACTORS

FRANCE 18/11/1999

NEW TWISTS TO TAIWAN FRIGATE SCANDAL 

The scandal involving payments of commissions by Thomson-CSF for the sale of anti-aircraft frigates to Taiwan has taken a fresh [...]

FRANCE 09/09/1999

THE GERMAN ANGLE TO ELF AFFAIR 

Intelligence Newsletter has learned that the Swiss legal authorities are poised this week to issue an international arrest warrant for [...]

GERMANY 10/06/1999

DIETER HOLZER 

Dieter Holzer is a powerful and secretive businessman who probably holds some of the secrets of the Elf scandal. Son [...]

AFRICA FRANCE 13/05/1999

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM SIRVEN'S FRIENDS 

According to the French police sources, former Elf managing director Alfred Sirven is thought to have been helped to drop [...]

FRANCE 25/02/1999

INTELLIGENCE TAUGHT AT ST. CYR 

Intelligence history now officially forms part of the curriculum for cadets at the celebrated French military college of St. Cyr-Coetquidan. [...]

Africa Intelligence 21/12/1999

LPG, SOUNDING OUT MARKET 

A Moroccan source has depicted Rubis' plan to build an imports terminal with a capacity of 40,000 tons per year [...]

Africa Intelligence 08/12/1999

HALFWAY MOVE FOR HYDRO CONGO 

Companies slated for privatization in Congo are going to change their management before the sell-off, including Hydro Congo. The latter [...]

Africa Intelligence 08/12/1999

GLOBAL WITNESS, PART II 

Less than a year after it published its report "A Rough Trade" on the diamonds that fuelled UNITA's military ventures, [...]

Africa Intelligence 08/12/1999

WOOD MACKENZIE LOWERS ITS PROJECTION 

In its latest update on E&P in Angola, Wood Mackenzie [...]

Africa Intelligence 08/12/1999

PRIDE ANGOLA TO DRILL ONE WELL FOR BP AMOCO 

BP Amoco is to take advantage of a slot with [...]

Africa Intelligence 08/12/1999

THE EXECUTIVE LINE-UP AT TOTALFINA-ELF 

On Dec. 1 Total Fina published a list of 50 [...]

Africa Intelligence 08/12/1999

KHADAFI COMES TO RESCUE CHAD'S OIL 

Colonel Muammer Kadhafi declared during a press conference on Nov. 30 that he intended to help Chad "replace Western oil companies" that pull out of the Doba oil fields project (AEM 264). He didn't dare add, however, that he was [. [...]

Africa Intelligence 24/11/1999

HITCHES WITH NEWBUILD 

Elf Exploration Angola's eighth find on block 17 after that of Cravo in early September is going to have to [...]

Africa Intelligence 24/11/1999

DOBA VICTIM OF GLOBALIZATION 

The Chad government signed a preliminary accord with Vivendi to take over management of the Societe Tchadienne d'Electricitre et d'Eau [...]

Africa Intelligence 24/11/1999

ELF MAY HAVE FOUND RIG FOR ULTRA DEEP 

AEM has learned that Elf is negotiating with Shell to [...]

Africa Intelligence 24/11/1999

TOTALFINA-ELF, RESOLVED BUT SELECTIVE 

A decision like the withdrawal – complete or partial – of Elf and Shell from the Chad oil project is automatically economic in nature. That, at any rate, was how the head of TotalFina Exploration-Production Christophe de Margerie portrayed the [. [...]

Africa Intelligence 10/11/1999

EA PROJECT IN STARTING BLOCKS 

In late October Shell's board gave a go-ahead to the EA project that will involve a first venture in "alternative" [...]

Africa Intelligence 10/11/1999

SEDCO EXPRESS TO BE DELIVERED IN JANUARY 

The DCN shipyard in Brest, France expects to deliver the [...]

Africa Intelligence 27/10/1999

7TH DISCOVERY ON BLOCK 17 CONFIRMED 

A seventh discovery in block 17 where Elf operates was [...]

Africa Intelligence 27/10/1999

UP TO THREE WELLS IN ADDITION TO THE ONE ON MPS 

Elf indeed issued a tender – closed on Oct. 12 [...]

Africa Intelligence 27/10/1999

NEWCOMER EDGES INTO OIL PICTURE 

Bids for the privatization of Societe Ivoirienne de Raffinage (SIR) are now set to close on Nov. 7. This follows changes in TotalFina's approach to the sell-off that prompted it to re-shape its bid by bringing Shell aboard in addition [. [...]

Africa Intelligence 16/10/1999

TOTAL MADAGASIKARA AVIATION IS BACK 

The company born of TotalFina's takeover of jet aviation fuel [...]

Africa Intelligence 13/10/1999

CLOSER LOOK AT CONGO BASIN 

Elf Exploration-Production is examining the first results from a series of surveys conducted by the French marine research institute Infremer [...]

Africa Intelligence 13/10/1999

POSSIBLE MOVES LOOMING FOR ELF GABON, ENERGY AFRICA AND AMERADA 

Before planned talks with TotalFina on Elf Gabon's future, president [...]

Africa Intelligence 29/09/1999

KOMBI-LIKALALA IN PRODUCTION 

Elf Congo has just put its latest development among small fields in the former Pointe Noire Grands Fonds permit, Kombi [...]

Africa Intelligence 29/09/1999

SIR SELL-OFF POSTPONED 

The Sept. 13 announcement that Elf and Total were to merge has had its first visible impact in Africa with [...]

Africa Intelligence 29/09/1999

PRIDE AFRICA TO START WITH APPRAISAL WELL 

The new deepwater drillship Pride Africa, which arrived in Angola [...]

Africa Intelligence 15/09/1999

ELF'S EVER-FASTER OUTPUT DROP 

The pace of Elf Gabon's drop in production, which saw output fall from 53 million barrels in 1997 to 48 [...]

Africa Intelligence 15/09/1999

TOTALFINA-ELF, ENI LEAVES OPTIONS OPENED 

The Sept. 13 announcement that Total/Fina and Elf had agreed to a now-friendly merger pushed aside rumors that ENI might [...]

Africa Intelligence 15/09/1999

DEEPWATER FRONTIER FOR ULTRA-DEEP ELF WELL? 

The drillship Deepwater Frontier may be emerging as the leading [...]

Africa Intelligence 28/07/1999

PRIDE AFRICA ON THE WAY 

The 51-49% joint venture between Pride International and Sonangol that owns the drillship Pride Africa has taken delivery of the [...]

Africa Intelligence 28/07/1999

ELF CONTRACT FOR SBM  Free

Elf has ordered a CALM loading point anchoring system from [...]

Africa Intelligence 28/07/1999

NIMR LINES UP ACTINIA 

Nimr Petroleum is due to take the Actinia next month [...]

Africa Intelligence 28/07/1999

SEDCO-TRANSOCEAN TIE-UP IN WAKE OF BP-AMOCO 

A tie-up between Sedco-Forex and Transocean has come on the heels of a wave of mega oil mergers that began with BP Amoco and looks likely to end once the double takeover battle between Total Fina and Elf runs its [. [...]

Africa Intelligence 14/07/1999

TOTALFINELF A MARKET GIANT? 

If Total Fina succeeds in its takeover bid for Elf the impact on the gas market could be extremely significant. [...]

Africa Intelligence 14/07/1999

DEBUT FOR AUSTRALIAN 

The government was negotiating with an Australian firm, Millenium Oil [...]

Africa Intelligence 14/07/1999

TOTALFIN/ELF FALLOUT FOR AFRICA 

A full week after Total Fina, which exists as such only since April 16, launched a 43 billion Euro takeover bid for Elf there is no solid indication of when Elf's board will meet to approve the "major project" that [. [...]

Africa Intelligence 30/06/1999

EXATRADE-JOVENNA ON THE MOVE 

Exatrade is interested in extending its activities to the mining sector, concedes the South African trading company. But in fact [...]

Africa Intelligence 30/06/1999

STILL NO GREEEN LIGHT FOR AMENAM-KPONO 

An official green light from the Nigerian authorities for the [...]

Africa Intelligence 16/06/1999

DROP IN INVESTMENT CONTAINED? 

Semi-official sources in Brazzaville believe that investment in Congo in general and in the oil industry in particularly won't be [...]

Africa Intelligence 16/06/1999

ELF OFFERS SLOTS WITH SEMI SUBS 

AEM has learned from oil services circles that Elf is [...]

Africa Intelligence 19/05/1999

ELF Z4 PLAN NEARLY READY 

Elf is understood to be considering a development of a field in its C-137 block in Libya which would entail [...]

Africa Intelligence 19/05/1999

ELF'S 5TH FIND IN BLOCK 17 

Elf Exploration Angola has just recorded a fifth oil discovery in block 17. Named Tulipa it comes after Girassol in [...]

Africa Intelligence 19/05/1999

WORKOVERS FOR ELF AND DEVELOPMENT IN SIGHT 

Elf has fixed the Sedco Forex jack-up Trident VIII for [...]

Africa Intelligence 05/05/1999

BRAZZAVILLE SEEKS GAS PARTNERS 

The Congo's hydrocarbons ministry has joined with the energy and hydraulics department in seeking private partners willing to conduct a [...]

Africa Intelligence 05/05/1999

FINAL ULTRA DEEP AWARDS SOON 

Already postponed several times, the final distribution of stakes on the first blocks in Angola's ultra deep offshore - 31, [...]

Africa Intelligence 05/05/1999

INVITATION TO TENDER FOR DRILLING ON AMENAM-KPONO 

As expected, Elf has invited bids for provision of two [...]

Africa Intelligence 14/04/1999

EARLY 2001 DRILLING FOR AMENAM 

Elf is expected in late April to issue invitations to tender for two jack-ups that it needs to drill development [...]

Africa Intelligence 14/04/1999

SHELL QUITS THREE COUNTRIES 

The sale of Royal Dutch-Shell's exploration and production assets in Namibia, Congo Brazzaville and Ivory Coast came as a bolt [...]

Africa Intelligence 14/04/1999

SEDNETH 701 ON KOMBI-LIKALALA 

Elf Congo is going to retain the services of the [...]

Africa Intelligence 31/03/1999

ELF SEEKS RIG FOR WORKOVER  Free

Elf has issued a tender invitation for a jack-up rig [...]

Africa Intelligence 17/03/1999

ACCORD ON 3RD NLNG TRAIN 

Nigeria LNG has awarded a consortium made up of Technip, Snamprogetti, Kellog Brown & Root and Japan Gasoline Corporation the [...]

Africa Intelligence 17/03/1999

ELF RELEASES GLOMAR ADRIATIC V 

As AEM reported it would do (AEM 246), Elf Congo [...]

Africa Intelligence 06/03/1999

TECHNICAL OFFER FOR SOLIMA 

Of the 96 specifications sold for the Call for bids [...]

Africa Intelligence 03/03/1999

GIRASSOL PUT BACK A FEW MONTHS 

Although the end of the year 2000 still officially remained [...]

Africa Intelligence 03/03/1999

TWO THIRDS OF ELF OUTPUT FROM AFRICA 

Africa's share in Elf Aquitaine's net output of crude rose [...]

Africa Intelligence 03/03/1999

ELF GABON'S INVESTMENTS FALL FOR SIXTH YEAR RUNNING 

Elf Gabon cut back on investment in exploration for the [...]

Africa Intelligence 17/02/1999

FEED CONTRACT FOR ALIA 

An affiliate of the ABB group, ABB Lummus, has won the front end, engineering and design contract for the development [...]

Africa Intelligence 17/02/1999

SHELL UNVEILS $8.5 BN PROJECTS 

Shell wants to press ahead with new gas and oil developments involving $8.5 billion in investments despite the fact that [...]

Africa Intelligence 17/02/1999

ELF DROPS SEDCO 700 

Elf has negotiated the early termination of its contract with [...]

Africa Intelligence 03/02/1999

CANOXY-ELF BUY-IN CONFIRMED 

The Nigerian government has approved Canadian Occidental Petroleum Ltd.'s acquisition of a 20% interest in Elf Petroleum Nigeria Ltd's offshore [...]

Africa Intelligence 03/02/1999

GIRASSOL TO START IN LATE 2000 

The Girassol field in Angola will indeed come on stream at the end of 2000 as initially planned, Elf chairman [...]

Africa Intelligence 20/01/1999

FIND FOR REPSOL 

Repsol, operator of the consortium that developed the Murzuk-El Sharara oil field - other members are Total and OMV - [...]

Africa Intelligence 20/01/1999

PRIDE COMPLETES FUNDING 

Pride International has concluded long-term financing agreements relating to the deepwater drillship Pride Angola (previously Pride Europe) that Hyundai Heavy [...]

Africa Intelligence 20/01/1999

BOOST FOR PNGF PROJECT 

Elf Congo has extended its program involving the series of small fields in the former Pointe Noire Grands Fonds (PNGF) [...]

Africa Intelligence 20/01/1999

SECOND FIND IN DEEP OFFSHORE 

Texaco has announced a major wildcat discovery, the second to be made in the deep Nigerian offshore on licenses granted [...]

Africa Intelligence 20/01/1999

ELF LIKELY TO DRILL TWO WELLS LATE THIS YEAR  Free

Elf is provisionally planning to drill two wells in offshore [...]

Africa Intelligence 06/01/1999

BLOCK O TO PROVIDE 600,000 BPD 

Initial development of the Kuito field on Angola's block 14 is going to be put back relative to earlier indications [...]

Africa Intelligence 06/01/1999

KICKOFF FOR AMENAM & BONGA 

The Nigerian government has approved a decision in August, 1997 that resulted in the choice of Elf Petroleum Nigeria as [...]

Africa Intelligence 06/01/1999

FIND FOR ELF IN DEEP OFFSHORE 

Elf Petroleum has made an appearently substantial discovery in Nigeria's deep offshore. The French group remained silent about results of [...]

Africa Intelligence 16/12/1998

DALIA PRE-SELECTION IN MID-99 

The main bidding for pre-selection for the main development contracts on Dalia, the second of four discoveries on Angola's block [...]

Africa Intelligence 16/12/1998

ELF NEEDS RIG TO DRILL IN 1,800 METERS 

Elf is planning an exploration well offshore Congo in the [...]

Africa Intelligence 02/12/1998

ELF TO USE TWO JACK-UPS ON AMENAM 

Elf is reviewing responses to a recent market check into [...]

Africa Intelligence 02/12/1998

SIZING UP MEGA MERGER IMPACT ON AFRICA 

Africa certainly hasn't been a decisive factor in the flurry of mega-mergers in the oil industry which are being spurred instead by the need to cut costs in the face of plunging oil prices – in real terms these are [. [...]

Africa Intelligence 07/11/1998

INDEMNIFICATION OF TOTAL 

The agreement covering the Malagasy authorities' compensation of French oil major Total whose assets in petroleum distribution on Madagascar had [...]

Africa Intelligence 04/11/1998

FOUR WAY TIE-UP FOR LPG LOGISTIC COMPANY 

On October 26 the Societe Cherifienne des Petroles (SCP), Tissir-Primagaz, [...]

Africa Intelligence 21/10/1998

PRIVATIZATION LOOMS FOR SOLIMA 

Ten companies will submit bids when an invitation to tender is issued next week for the privatization of the state-owned [...]

Africa Intelligence 21/10/1998

NEW FINDS ON BLOCKS 14-15 

Within a week of one other Chevron and Exxon each announced new discoveries on blocks 14 and 15 where they [...]

Africa Intelligence 07/10/1998

EA AND GENTRY AWAIT BETTER DAYS TO DRILL ON OFOUBOU 

Gentry Petroleum indicated that several "significant leads" had been identified [...]

Africa Intelligence 07/10/1998

SCARABEO 4 ENDS DRILLING FOR ELF 

Elf has released the semi-submersible Scarabeo 4 after a seven-month [...]

Africa Intelligence 23/09/1998

ELF AND AMOCO WIN DEEPWATER BLOCK 

After largely pulling out of Egypt, Elf Aquitaine has made [...]

Africa Intelligence 23/09/1998

OIL AND GAS, THE SEMINAR GLUT 

The organizers of seminars and conferences seem in no way discouraged by sagging markets for raw materials and particularly for oil even though the price of crude doesn't look set to break out of the $12-14 range for a long [. [...]

Africa Intelligence 09/09/1998

FOURTH DISCOVERY ON BLOCK 17 

On Sept. 3 Elf announced its fourth discovery on block 17 in the deep Angolan offshore, Lirio. It follows Girassol [...]

Africa Intelligence 09/09/1998

THIRD SUPPLY BOAT ORDERED FOR GIRASSOL 

The Marseilles-based offshore services company SURF will provide a third [...]

Africa Intelligence 09/09/1998

SCARABEO COULD DRILL IN GHANA OFFSHORE 

Elf will release the semi-submersible Scarabeo 4 at the end [...]

Africa Intelligence 26/08/1998

MOBIL GET A HEAD START 

Mobil has won a serious option on all 22 blocks in the deep offshore that Sao Tome & Principe is [...]

Africa Intelligence 26/08/1998

HIGH ISLAND VII TO DRILL FOR ELF  Free

Pecten has extended its contract in Cameroon with the jack-up [...]

Africa Intelligence 22/07/1998

BIG IFC SYNDICATED LOAN FOR PECTEN'S PROJECTS 

The World Bank affiliate International Finance Corp. has organized a [...]

Africa Intelligence 22/07/1998

MOBIL SUBLETS SEMI-SUB FOR DEEP OFFSHORE 

After changing its mind about offering slots for rigs at [...]

Africa Intelligence 22/07/1998

"WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS" 

With conflict widening in Angola's north-east, where the government claims that UNITA has fielded 30,000 troops, Angola has played a finer match in the oil tournament than the Brazilian soccer team did in the World Cup final against France. [...]

Africa Intelligence 08/07/1998

GIRASOL GROUP FINALIZES PLANS 

The Girasol team is finally in place. Not in Professor Tournesol's den at the Belgian comic strip character Tintin's place [...]

Africa Intelligence 08/07/1998

BUY-INS AND CHANGES 

The following changes have been approved: Elf has acquired a [...]

Africa Intelligence 24/06/1998

GREENS FRET OVER PIPELINE PLAN 

A "summit of the seven poorest countries" organized by the Greens on June 12 in the European Parliament's building in [...]

Africa Intelligence 24/06/1998

CONTRACTS ON KOMBI-LIKALALA 

Elf Congo has just signed new integrated development drilling contracts with Horwell and Sedco Forex for the Kombi-Likalala project. Work [...]

Africa Intelligence 24/06/1998

ELF AND NIMR SHARE RIG 

The semi-submersible Actinia will begin mobilizing from a yard in Singapore to the Mediterranean at the end of the month [...]

Africa Intelligence 10/06/1998

NO EXPLORATION WELLS FOR ELF 

Elf Gabon has acquired 11,000 km of seismic data out of the 13,000 km available for the eighth bidding round [...]

Africa Intelligence 10/06/1998

ELF OIL HANDS USA BRIDGE LOGISTIC CONTRACT 

Elf Oil Tchad has signed a three year logistic contract [...]

Africa Intelligence 10/06/1998

ELF EP TO BOOST RESERVOIR MANAGEMENT CAPACITY 

Elf Exploration Production has signed an agreement with GeoQuest, an [...]

Africa Intelligence 27/05/1998

ELF PRESSES AHEAD WITH PROGRAM 

Glomar Adriatic V's contract to drill a well for Vaalco is the main reason for its remaining in Gabon. There [...]

Africa Intelligence 13/05/1998

OPERATORS READY TO SIGN 

The government is shortly to sign contracts with the operators chosen for blocks 23, 24 and 25 in the middle [...]