All articles in the Farm in, Farm Out Section:

By Sully Manope, in Luanda

Angola’s National Agency for Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels (ANPG) has announced the entry of Oando Plc, the Nigerian junior, into the Contractor Group of Block KON 13, as operator, holding 45% of the participating interest, with Effimax Energy – Serviços, Lda (30%), Sonangol Exploração & Produção (15%) and Walcot Ltd (10%) as associates.

The Block, located in the  Kwanza Onshore  Basin ,” has significant exploration potential in pre-salt and post-salt accumulations, with estimates of 770 to 1,100Million barrels of prospective oil resources”, the upstream regulatory agency declared in a statement. “It has two exploration wells previously drilled to a maximum depth of 3,000 meters, with the presence of oil and gas observed at various depth levels”.

Paulino Jerónimo, Chairman of the Board of Directors of ANPG, emphasized that “Oando’s presence in Angola is a clear indication that African oil companies are beginning to see Angola as a reliable reference for their investment”.

The Greek minnow Energean is in the process of acquiring Chevron’s 31% operated interest in Block 14 and 15.5% non-operated interest in Block 14K for a base consideration of $260Million.
The buyer will make ⁠contingent payments of up to $25Million per annum, to a maximum of $250Million, in addition to the base consideration. Contingent payments will be payable through 2038, linked to future developments and oil prices.
Blocks 14 & 14K produced around 40,000Barrels of Oil Per day(BOPD) in December 2025, the poorest performing asset out of the country’s pioneering trio of deepwater producers (featuring ExxonMobil operated Block 15 and TOTALEnergies operated Block 17). Block 14 handed Chevron the discovery of the Kuito field In 400metre water depth, in 1997. Production started in 1999.
Chevron’s divestment follows Azule Energies’s sale of its 20% interest in Block 14 and a 10% interest in Block 14K to a consortium of M&P and BW Energy (for up to $310Million, including deferred contingent payments of up to $115Million, announced in December 2025.
The Azule Energies sale has not received approval of the Angolan authorities and the Chevron transaction will likely wait for as many as six months for the nod.
Chevron’s remaining assets ⁠in Angola include 39.2% operated stake in Block 0, the company’s heartland, which averages around 120,000BOPD and close to 1Billion standard cubic feet of gas per day; three non-producing tracts: 33, 49 and 50 as well as the Angola LNG.

Italian explorer ENI is currently considering bids from about four E&P companies for the purchase of its 5% stake in the Renaissance/TOTAL/ENI/NNPC Joint Venture.  The bidders include at least three Nigerian independents.

The asset involved in this vigorously contested transaction include 13 onshore OMLs (20, 21, 22, 25, 27, 31, 32, 33, 35, 36, 43, 45 and 46) and two shallow water OMLs (74 and 79).

More than 40 producing fields and ~3,500 kilometre of pipelines with 28 flow stations and two associated gas plants connecting the fields to the Bonny and Forcados terminals and a dedicated FPSO (Sea Eagle FPSO).

The three Nigerian independents…

The Oil Prospecting Licence 245 (OPL 245)-the so called “Malabu Block”- in deepwater central Niger Delta, was front and centre at the Thurday, March 5, 2026 meeting between Bola Ahmed Tinubu, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and Claudio Descalzi, Chief Executive Officer of ENI, the Italian oil major.

The meeting followed up on the conversion of the OPL 245 into two development licences, Petroleum Mining Leases (PML) 102 and 103, and two exploration licences, Petroleum Prospecting Leases (PPL) 2011 and 2012.

ENI’s Nigerian subsidiary, Nigerian Agip Exploration Limited (NAE), will operate the four licences. Its partners include Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) and Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited (SNEPCO).

“The agreement includes the mutually satisfactory settlement of all claims related to OPL 245 and the discontinuation of the international arbitration proceeding at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID); as a consequence”, ENI said in a release.

“The recent signature of the Project Agreements will enable the development of the Zabazaba and Etan fields”, the company added. Zabazaba and Etan are located in PMLs 102 and PML 103 respectively.

“The Etan-Zabazaba development leverages approximately 500Millon Barrels (MMbbls) of oil of reserves, and its development plan is premised on a 150,000Barrels of Oil Per Day (BOPD) capacity FPSO processing facility, while Two Hundred Million standard cubic feet per day (200 MMscf/d) of gas at peak will be exported through Nigeria LNG”, ENI explained.

With these agreements, the Tinubu administration has retreated and walked away from the hard stance that the Nigerian government had taken on the so-called Malabu Scandal since Tinubu’s predecessor, President Muhammadu Buhari, took office in 2015.

“The agreement marks the resolution of a dispute spanning more than 15 years. It restores clarity and stability to an asset widely recognised as one of Nigeria’s most commercially promising deepwater blocks”, the Nigerian president said through a spokesman on Thursday.

“This resolution sends a clear signal to global investors that Nigeria is prepared to address legacy issues transparently, uphold the rule of law, and create a stable environment for long-term capital,” the President said.

“The settlement also represents a significant improvement on the 2011 Resolution Agreement, reflecting the policy framework established under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) and the administration’s broader fiscal and governance reforms in the energy sector”, said Olu Arowolo-Verheijen, President Tinubu’s adviser on energy.

It is telling that Mr Desclazi himself, now ENI’s CEO for the last 12 years, was one of those officials of ENI who faced certain prospect of a jail term, as Italian prosecutors ran the Malabu case as a fraud case in the Milan court between 2018 and 2021.

A June 14, 2021 judgement by the United Kingdom commercial Court “that there is no evidence of fraud in the OPL 245 transaction between Nigeria and JP Morgan Chase Bank”, followed the March 17, 2021 ruling by the Milan court, declaring that Descalzi and members of his management “had no case to answer” for the payment the company made to acquire its stake in the OPL 245 Lease, on 2010.

The Buhari government had pressed on, regardless of the acquittals in London and Milan, with the Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) maintaining, in the Nigerian court system, “that a fraudulent settlement and resolution came under (President Goodluck Jonathan’s) government with Shell and ENI buying the oil block from Malabu in the sum of $1.1Billion”.

By his visit to the highest office in Nigeria, Mr. Descalzi joined the lengthening queue of CEOs and top tier ranked executives of oil majors, making the pilgrimage to Mr. Tinubu, whose series of reforms in the last 30months has put the global oil patch on notice about Nigeria’s readiness as an investment destination.

In January 2026, Global Shell CEO Wael Sawan met with President Tinubu to discuss a planned $20illion investment in Nigeria. Earlier, in July 2023, a delegation of Shell executives led by the Director of Shell Nigeria also met with the President. In January 2024, Clay Neff, President of Chevron International Exploration and Production, led a delegation to the State House, accompanied by Chevron Nigeria’s top management, to discuss bolstering investment in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector. In June 2023 Liam Mallon, President of ExxonMobil Upstream Company, led a delegation to meet with President Tinubu and again in May 2024 to discuss investments and divestment issues.

“With regards to the exploration licenses PPL 2011 and PPL 2012, they hold high potential and are suitable for fast-tracked development synergic with future Zabazaba-Etan facilities”, ENI said.

President Tinubu and Mr. Descalzi also discussed ENI’s other investment portfolio — including the diminishing Abo field, down to les than 10,000Barrels of Oil Per ay in gross output which ENI operates; the Bonga fields and Nigeria LNG, which are led by Shell.

ENI has recently acquired some stake in the Bonga from TOTALEnergies and expanded its interests in the asset to 15%.

ENI has been operating in Nigeria since 1962, with activities ranging from hydrocarbon exploration and production to power generation and community development. The company currently has an equity production of approximately 55,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and a 10.4% stake in Nigeria LNG.

By Mohammed Jetutu, in Cairo

Chevron Corporation (by its subsidiary Chevron Business Development EMEA Ltd)., has entered Libya after it was designated as a winning bidder in the 2025 Libyan Bid Round. This follows the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the country’s National Oil Corporation (NOC).

The US major was designated as the winning bidder for Contract Area 106 located in the Sirte Basin on February 11, 2026 in Libya’s 2025 Bidding Round. On January 24, 2026 Chevron separately signed an MoU with NOC in Tripoli to evaluate the development and exploration potential in the country’s onshore.

To win the Contract Area 106, Chevron elbowed out the French major TOTAL and the American independent ConocoPhillips in a stiff competition.

“Chevron is excited to enter Libya with the award of onshore Contract Area 106, which underscores our focus on North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean region, and is a good fit in our exploration strategy to grow our portfolio with high-quality acreage and high impact prospects,” said Kevin McLachlan, Vice President of Exploration at Chevron.

The Libyan entry is part of a wider Pan African and Mediterranean effort by the company

In early February 2026, Chevron signed a unitisation agreement covering the YoYo-Yolanda gas condensate discovery that straddles the maritime boundary between Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon, paving the way for its development. A month before that the company took the Final Investment Decision (FID) to expand the production capacity of the strategic Leviathan production platform located offshore Israel. The expansion project, expected to come online towards the end of this decade, is  a big deal in the Mediterranean; it is right at the heart of the December 2025 deal signed between Israel and Egypt to increase the former’s gas export to the latter from 2030 to 2040.

“Libya has significant proven oil reserves and a long history of producing its resources. Chevron is confident that its proven track record in developing oil and gas projects and its technical expertise gives it the ability to support Libya to further develop its resources,” Chevron said in a statement.

The award of the Contract Area is subject to the execution of a Production Sharing Agreement.

“Chevron looks forward to our partnership with NOC and other key stakeholders in Libya. The Contract Area award and MoU are important milestones as we continue to evaluate opportunities to support Libya’s energy sector,” said Frank Mount, President of Corporate Business Development.

“Chevron has a diverse exploration and production portfolio in the Mediterranean and Africa and continues to assess potential future opportunities in the region. Chevron is one of the largest producers and acreage holders in Nigeria, Angola and Equatorial Guinea. It has two exploration blocks each in Namibia and Guinea-Bissau, and three exploration blocks in Egypt. In February, Chevron also signed an MoU in Syria”.