About half of the 50 hydrocarbon fields awarded in the 2020-2022 Nigerian bid round have moved to a more certain, next stage.
Two have had their Petroleum Prospecting Licences (PPLs 202 &218) converted to Petroleum Mining Licences.
Another five have earned the status “Conversion to PML in Progress”.
18 other PPLs have received “Optional Extension Granted”.
But there are 25 more that haven’t been….
French major TOTALEnergies has inked an agreement with Libyan authorities, extending the Waha Concessions up to December 31, 2050.
“This agreement sets new fiscal terms allowing to increase the production of these concessions that are currently producing around 370,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOEPD)”, the company says in a statement. “It paves the way for a new phase of investments, including the development of the North Gialo field, which is expected to add 100,000BOEPD of production.
On TOTAL’s side, the signing was done by Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of TOTALEnergies, in the presence of Abdul Hamid Dbeiba, Prime Minister of the Government of National Unity. The ceremony was performed during the Libya Energy & Economy Summit in Tripoli.
TOTAL’s statement reiterateded that it has been in the country since 1956, and reaffirmed its long-standing commitment to working alongside its partners to increase Waha’s production, starting with the development of the North Gialo field.
Pouyanné said: “Extending the Waha concession, with its low cost and low emission giant resources offering many opportunities to grow production, fits perfectly with our strategy”.
By Sully Manope, in Abidjan
SOCAR, the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan, has signed a binding agreement with ENI, the Italian explorer, for the sale of a 10% stake in the Baleine Project, a large deepwater development offshore Côte d’Ivoire.
The transaction aligns with ENI’s strategy of optimising its upstream portfolio by accelerating the monetization of exploration discoveries through the divestment of equity stakes, a model known as the “dual exploration model,” ENI said in a release.
The closing of the deal is subject to appropriate regulatory approvals and other customary terms and conditions.
The Baleine field was discovered in 2021, two decades after the last commercial discovery in Côte d’Ivoire and it achieved production in record time, in 2023. Currently, Baleine produces over 62,000 barrels of oil and more than 75Million cubic feet of gas per day from Phases 1 and 2. With the launch of Phase 3, production is expected to rise to 150,000 barrels of oil and 200Million cubic feet of gas per day.
Baleine is operated with a 47.25% stake by ENI. Current partners include Vitol (30%) and the state hydrocarbon company Petroci (22.75%).
“The agreement is consistent with the broader collaboration between ENI and SOCAR”, the statement said. “In 2024, the companies signed three Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) focused on energy security- aiming to expand cooperation on hydrocarbon exploration and production- as well as greenhouse gas emissions reduction and the biofuel production chain”
ENI has been present in Cote d’Ivoire since 2015. Baleine is its first development in the country.
Canadian explorer, Reconnaissance Energy Africa (ReconAfrica), has completed its listed issuer financing exemption offering for aggregate gross proceeds of C$36,800,098 (~$27Million), including the exercise in full of the over-allotment option.
BW Energy Limited acquired 2,315,780 Units pursuant to the Offering, comprised of 2,315,780 Common Shares and 1,157,890 Warrants, for an aggregate purchase price of C$2,199,991 $1,588382.50, which is around 6% of the total proceeds. The shares were indirectly acquired through BW Energy’s wholly-owned subsidiary BW Energy Services Limited (BWESL).
The money was raised for the purposes of expediting activity across the company’s portfolio, including a production test to determine the producibility of the discovered reservoirs in Kavango West 1X well onshore Namibia and the exploration of the Ngulu Block offshore Gabon, which includes the Loba discovery.
“This Offering sets out to fund that multi-pronged 2026 capital programme. Net proceeds will be used for the following activities”, ReconAfrica says in the release:
The Offering was conducted on an underwritten basis led by Research Capital Corporation as the lead underwriter and sole bookrunner, on behalf of a syndicate of underwriters, which included Canaccord Genuity Corp. and Haywood Securities Inc.
ReconAfrica issued at total of 38,736,945 units at a price of C$0.95 per Unit. Each Unit comprised of one common share of the Company (“Common Share”) and one-half of one Common Share purchase warrant of the Company (“Warrant”). Each Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one Common Share at an exercise price of C$1.20 at any time up to 36 months from closing of the Offering.
The Units were sold to purchasers resident in Canada pursuant to the listed issuer financing exemption under Part 5A of National Instrument 45-106 – Prospectus Exemptions and Coordinated Blanket Order 45-935 – Exemptions from Certain Conditions of the Listed Issuer Financing Exemption and to eligible purchasers resident in jurisdictions outside of Canada (including to purchasers resident in the United States pursuant to one or more exemptions from the registration requirements of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended), in each case in accordance with all applicable laws. The Units are not subject to any hold period under applicable Canadian securities legislation.
The Offering is subject to final acceptance by the TSX Venture Exchange.
Prior to the closing of the Offering, BW Energy, through its wholly-owned subsidiary BWESL, beneficially owned 24,023,000 Common Shares and 24,023,000 Common Share purchase warrants of the Company representing approximately 7.08% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares on an undiluted basis and approximately 13.22% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares assuming the exercise in full of the Common Share purchase warrants owned by BW Energy through BWESL.
Following the closing of the Offering, BW Energy, through its wholly-owned subsidiary BWESL, beneficially owns 26,338,780 Common Shares and 25,180,890 Common Share purchase warrants of the Company, representing approximately 6.96% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares on an undiluted basis and approximately 12.77% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares assuming the exercise in full of the Common Share purchase warrants owned by BW Energy through BWESL.
The Units have not been registered and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to U.S. Persons absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy the securities in the United States or in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to qualification or registration under the securities laws of such jurisdiction.
By Macson Obojemuimoin
TOTALEnergies has signed a Sale and Purchase Agreement with a Special Purpose Vehicle named VAARIS Resources JV Co (VRJC) Ltd for its 10% equity in the Renaissance Africa/NNPC/ENI/TOTAL Joint Venture, covering 18 oil mining leases (OMLs) in onshore and shallow water eastern, central and western Niger Delta basin.
VAARIS Resources JV Co. Ltd is a consortium of Nigerian oil and gas players, consisting of three marginal field operators and three industry service providers. The SPA with TOTAL was signed on behalf of the consortium by Tein George, Chairman of the company.
The Renaissance Africa/NNPC/ENI/TOTAL JV, formerly known as the SPDC /NNPC/ENI/TOTAL JV, is an unincorporated joint venture between Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Ltd (55%), Renaissance Africa Energy Company Ltd (30%, operator), TOTALEnergies EP Nigeria (10%) and Agip Energy and Natural Resources Nigeria (5%).
Under the agreement signed with VAARIS:
The bid for this purchase, among Nigerian players, has gone for over three years.
VAARIS was the reserved bidder in the bid process to purchase the asset from TOTAL, placing second after Chappal Energies who won the bid in July 2024 for a firm consideration of $860Million.
TOTAL and Chappal did not close their transaction even after they had both received regulatory approval for the sale and purchase. So, by March 2025, TOTAL had recoursed to talking to other parties regarding the asset Sale and purchase.
Between March and June 2025, SAPETRO, the Nigerian independent owned by retired General Theophilus Danjuma, appeared set to clinch the prize. SAPETRO has been a partner with TOTAL in other assets for over 20 years. But VAARIS prevailed.
Then a new player entered the fray. The partnership between Bayo Ogunlesi, Chief Executive Officer of Global Infrastructure Partners & BlackRock, and Hakeem Belo-Osagie, chairman of Metis Capital, disrupted the proceedings. Ogunlesi and Belo-Osgie wrote in a letter to TOTAL that they had the capital in hand to both fund the acquisition and the “cash call” for projects that the JV partners select for development. The team visited the Paris, France, headquarters of TOTAL to meet with the French major’s top officials.
In Nigeria, they followed up with a correspondence to the office of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, seeking assurance for smooth regulatory consent in the event that they were successful. Messrs Ogunlesi and Belo-Osagie‘s widely publicised meeting with President Bola Tinubu in the week of September 29, 2025, was choreographed to signal how much access they had to the head of state.
Between October and mid-December 2025, it seemed like nothing was happening. There was a sense that the pendulum would swing in favour of the Ogunlesi-Bello-Osagie cohort.
Then in the morning of January 14, 2026, this press release from TOTAL arrived, announcing the SPA with VARIS. This is an evolving story.
Maurel & Prom S.A, the (then) French independent who provided a chunk of the money for Seplat Energy Plc to acquire its first set of upstream assets in 2010, has sold its entire stake in the London and Nigerian exchange listed firm.
M&P’s 120.4Million shares, representing a 20.07% interest in Seplat, was sold to Heirs Energies Ltd at a price of 305 pence per share, corresponding to a total consideration of $496Million, with an initial payment of $248Million and the balance payable within 30 days, secured by an irrevocable letter of credit, the company said in a statement on December 31, 2025.
An additional contingent consideration of $10Million may become payable, subject to share price performance over the next six months.
Once the regulatory issues are cleared, Heirs Energies will take a seat on Seplat’s board as the largest shareholder, a vantage space for a close competitor in the Nigerian oil patch.
“M&P has been one of Seplat’s three founders and its largest shareholder since inception in 2010, and has supported the company throughout its development into a leading Nigerian energy player with a diversified portfolio across oil and gas, playing a key role in Nigeria’s energy security”, the company’s statement explained.
M&P worked on the ground floor of the concept called Seplat Energy. In 2010, it paid $153Million as its contribution for Seplat’s purchase of Shell/TOTAL/ENI’s stake in Oil Mining Leases (OMLs) 4, 38 &41 in the Western Niger Delta. M&P also guaranteed the $187Million BNP loan facility advanced to Shebah E&P and Platform Petroleum, the two core founders of Seplat, to make up the balance for a total cash payment of $340Million to Shell, TOTAL & ENI. At that point, M&P was 45% owner of Seplat, with Shebah and Platform holding 31% and 24%.
OMLs 4, 38 & 41 became Seplat’s base business and was the springboard from which the company made the London Stock Exchange listing and acquired positions in several OMLs, until it gobbled up the entire shares of Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, which pushed its gross liquid hydrocarbon output to higher than 230,000Barrels of Oil Per day at optimum conditions.
“This investment has proven to be a great success for M&P, delivering very strong returns since inception in 2010. We believe that now is the right time for M&P to monetise this position and further focus on direct investments in oil and gas assets, in line with a growth strategy that we plan to accelerate” Olivier de Langavant, Chief Executive Officer of M&P, declared:
“We are incredibly proud to have supported Seplat’s journey over the last fifteen years and its transformation into a leading energy company in Nigeria across both oil and gas”
Ghana’s Cybele Energy has inked a Production Sharing Agreement for a shallow water offshore acreage in Guyana.
In the week of December 8, 2025, the Accra-headquartered company, headed by president Beatrice Mensah‑Tayui signed a $17Milion- deal for Block S7, awarded under the country’s first competitive licensing round, which was announced in February 2025.
Block S7 is located outside disputed territorial zones and benefits from 3D-seismic data overlapping the Carapa‑1 area.
Cybele Energy was the second of the three groups awarded four blocks to sig its PSA with the Guyanese authorities. In November 2025, TOTALEnergies (leading its partners Qatar Energy and Petronas), signed a $15Million agreement for shallow-water Block S4, in what was described as a new deal under Guyana’s updated oil framework.
The 100% Guyanese-owned International Group Investment Inc. (IGI), which was awarded two blocks S5 & S10, has not concluded its negotiations.
Production figures published by Cybele Energy are a stretch. The statement says the plan is to produce up to 160,000Barrels of Oil Per day from a development concept using eight production wells and onshore early production facilities. This kind of output would suggest that a large discovery of at least 600Million barrels of oil is proven and that flow assurance dynamics have been determined to support it. AOGR believes that this statement is highly speculative. You can’t be talking about <100KBPD output in the same statement in which you are reporting the signature of a PSA agreement for a new block that you haven’t taken charge of.
The country’s PSA structure includes a 65% cost‑recovery clause for shallow‑water blocks. In Cybele’s view, this “enhances the block’s commercial viability”.
The block lies 50 kilometres from ExxonMobil’s Liza projects and is estimated to hold 400Million barrels of recoverable oil, Cybele claims. Drilling of the first exploration well is due within 12 months of the PSA’s effective date.
Cybele Energy’s technical partners include Norway‑based Well Expertise, which describes itself as providing “a one-stop shop for projects related to exploration, appraisal, development, PP&A, CCS, including consultancy services”. Well Expertise is represented on Cybele Energy’s Executve Management by Wim Kouwe, designated as Block S7 Geoscience Advisor, Well Expertise. Kouwe has worked as Chief Geologist for (the defunct German operator) Wintershall in Libya; he was asset and exploration manager for Cairn Energy for 11years, according to his LinkedIn. Cybele Energy’s Vice President for Geology & Geophysics is Segun Jebutu, who was, until March 2022, Regional Manager for Baker Hughes in the Gulf of Mexico, United States.
All of these indicate technical manpower, but Cybele has to raise the finance for operations.
The PSA on S7 was signed in Georgetown at a government‑hosted ceremony, supported by legal advisor Africa Legal Associates (ALA), local media reported. ALA advised Cybele Energy through a three‑year licensing and negotiation process.
TOTALEnergies has won the keenly contested bid for farm in into Galp Energia’s Petroleum Exploration Licence (PEL) 83 in Namibia.
With 40% interest, the French explorer will be operator of the acreage, which hosts the huge Mopane discovery.
Galp will in turn acquire a 10% participating interest in TOTAL-led PEL 56 license, hosting the Venus discovery.
QatarEnergy, which is TOTAL’’s partner in PEL 56, did not go along into PEL 83.
“The transaction positions TOTALEnergies as the operator of the two largest oil discoveries in Namibia and opens the way for the development of a major producing hub, generating long-term value for the country and partners”, TOTAL said in a release..
TOTALEnergies will carry 50% of Galp’s capital expenditures for the exploration and appraisal of the Mopane discovery and the first development on PEL83. The carry will be repaid through 50% of Galp’s future cash flows from the project.
TOTALEnergies and Galp agreed to launch an exploration and appraisal campaign including three wells over the next two years, with a first well planned in 2026, to further derisk resources and progress diligently toward the development of the Mopane discovery.
FID on course for Venus in 2026
TOTAL reiterates its full commitment to the development of the Venus discovery, “and is working to secure all conditions enabling a potential final investment decision in 2026”.
Completion of the transaction is subject to customary third party approvals from the Nambian authorities and joint ventures parties, with completion expected to occur in 2026.
After completion of the transaction, TOTALEnergies will own:
a 40% operated interest in PEL83 alongside Galp (40%), Namcor (10%) and Custos (10%);
a 35.25% operated interest in PEL56 alongside QatarEnergy (35.25%), Galp (10%), Namcor (10%) and Impact (9.5%);
a 33.085% operated interest in PEL91 alongside QatarEnergy (33.025%), Namcor (15%), Galp (9.39%) and Impact (9.5%).
Nigeria’s Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has announced 50 Petroleum prospecting Licenses as the sum of its offering in the 2025 bid round, which opened on the first of December 2025.
The Niger Delta is responsible for 35 of these acreages. And out of the Niger Delta share, 11 are located in the south east offshore, the most prolific corner of the basin. The rest of the offered PPLs in the Niger Delta include 14 onshore nine (9) shallow water tracts and one deepwater asset (PPL 2010) on offer in this auction.
Most of the tracts in the current round are small acreages; what would have been described as “marginal fields” in the old order. But such terminology is no longer known to law as governed by the Petroleum Industry Act of 2021.
15 other PPLs are located…
TOTALEnergies has announced the signing of agreements with Conoil Producing Limited (Conoil), under which TOTALEnergies is to acquire from Conoil a 50% operated interest in block Oil Prospecting Lease (OPL) 257 and Conoil is to acquire the 40% participating interest held by TOTALEnergies in block Oil Mining Lease (OML)136, both located offshore Nigeria.
Upon completion of this transaction, TOTALEnergies’ interest in OPL257 will be increased from 40% to 90%, while Conoil will retain a 10% interest in this block.
Covering an area of around 370 square kilometres, OPL 257 is located 150 kilometres offshore the coast of Nigeria. This block is adjacent to Petroleum Prospecting lease (PPL) 261, where TOTALEnergies (24%) and its partners discovered in 2005 the Egina South field, which extends into OPL 257. An appraisal well of Egina South is planned to be drilled in 2026 on OPL 257 side, and the field is expected to be developed as a tie-back to the Egina FPSO, located approximately 30 kilometres away.
“This transaction, built on our longstanding partnership with Conoil, will enable TOTALEnergies to proceed with the appraisal of the Egina South discovery, an attractive tie-back opportunity for Egina FPSO”, TOTALEnergies says in a release. “This fits perfectly with our strategy to leverage existing production facilities to profitably develop additional resources and to focus on our operated gas and offshore oil assets in Nigeria”, said Mike Sangster, Senior Vice-President Africa, Exploration & Production at TOTALEnergies.
Completion of the transaction is subject to customary conditions, including regulatory approvals.
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