Africa is seeing a shift away from play-opening exploration
Opinion
Letter from Africa: Upstream opportunities abound as majors step back
There are plenty of large sellers and smaller buyers, but there may be a medium-size missing piece
It would seem sensible, with the oil price surging past $75/bl, to continue with relatively underexplored and underexploited African plays within diversified portfolios. But assets with decent returns and operational flexibility are being considered divestment candidates by majors and large IOCs when, even in the very recent past, they would have been considered core. They now form part of an unprecedented opportunity set for would-be buyers. Not all the big boys are packing up shop in Africa. TotalEnergies remains committed and is even bucking the trend, with plans to drill one of the deepest deepwater wells, Ondjaba in Angola, as well as frontier wells in Cote d’Ivoire and Namibia. Italy’
Also in this section
15 May 2025
Financial problems, lack of exploration success and political dogma cause uncertainty across much of the region
14 May 2025
The invisible hand of the market has seen increasing transparency but much more needs to be done to build a better understanding
13 May 2025
A fall in Venezuelan output drives overall production lower, as Saudi Arabia starts to slowly bring more crude to the market
12 May 2025
With the gas industry’s staunchest advocates and opponents taking brutal blows, the sector looks like treading a path of insipid indifference
