Mozambique Targets Gas Companies for Stock Exchange Listings

Mozambique’s stock exchange may add five new listings by 2018, the first as early as June, as companies exploring for gas raise funding for projects, said Anabela Chambuca Pinho, chief executive officer of the bourse.

“Foreign companies operating or those wishing to extract gas and oil in our country that are listed on other exchanges have to be listed on our exchange in Mozambique,” she said in an interview in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe yesterday. “These companies will need to raise capital in our markets.”

The southern African nation, site of the world’s largest discovery of natural gas in the past decade, has attracted companies including Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Eni SpA as it pushes for investments of as much as $30 billion into the industry by 2018. The economy of more than 23 million people expanded 6.8 percent in the third quarter. Vale SA, the world’s biggest iron-ore producer, is building a railway line to transport coal from a mine in Mozambique to the coast.

The Maputo, Mozambique-based bourse, known as the Bolsa de Valores de Mocambique, has a market capitalization of more than 30 billion meticais (US$977 million) with three listed companies as well as government and corporate debt, according to its website. Stocks include SABMiller Plc’s Cervejas de Mocambique SA, a brewer, and Cia Mocambicana de Hidrocarbonetos SA, a state-owned oil and gas company.

“By end of June, we expect one more company to be listed,” Chambuca Pinho said, declining to identify the business because of confidentiality agreements. “We are small in terms of numbers currently listed but we are growing.”

A company has to pay 28 million meticais to list its stock. The bourse recorded 250 trades in 2012, 191 of which were in the equity market and 21 on the bond market, Chambuca Pinho said. It trades from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, according to its website.

The metical weakened 0.5 percent to 30.7000 per dollar as of 9:24 a.m. in the capital, Maputo. The currency has dropped 3.3 percent against the dollar this year.

The story is courtesy of Bloomberg, By Godfrey Marawanyika - Feb 15, 2013 

Tullow says Kenya's discovered oil shows promise of commercial viability

Tullow Oil Plc released a set of Kenyan well test results yesterday which it said showed promise of commercial viability.

Tullow, said results from its Twiga South-1 well showed "the first potentially commercial flow rates achieved in Kenya."

The London-listed company has operations in several African countries but investors see its Kenyan drilling as particularly important.

Four flow tests were carried out on Twiga South-1 in January and early February and a fifth test is ongoing, Tullow said, predicting a total combined flow rate of over 2,850 barrels of oil per day for the well in western Kenya.

"That's better than the 500 barrels a day... they discussed as an expectation," said Macquarie analyst Mark Wilson. "They've pulled a rabbit out of the hat there on operational progress."

The tests also provide "real encouragement" for Ngamia, another Tullow prospect in Kenya's Rift Basin, the company said.

The  rig that was drilling at Twiga South-1 will now move to Ngamia-1A to re-enter the well there and perform four flow tests.

Tullow said these tests are expected to deliver rates similar to Twiga South-1.

To temper expectations Tullow said it will require considerably more exploration and appraisal before the commercial threshold for the basin is achieved.

Another keenly-watched prospect in its Kenya-Ethiopia portfolio, the Paipai-1 well, encountered "difficult hole conditions" Tullow said. It hopes to draw some conclusions on it by the end of February.

Africa Oil is a partner at Twiga South-1 and Afren Plc is a partner at PaiPai.

Tullow Oil discovers gas deposits at well in Northern Kenya

Tullow Oil has discovered deposits of natural gas at its  Paipai 1 well in northern Kenya, whose drilling began 2 months ago and is set to be completed in a month's time.

The deposits were struck at 4,100 metres, less than a kilometre to the target depth of 4,900 metres at the Pai Pai 1 well in Block 10 A. The block is half owned by Tullow, 30 per cent by Africa Oil and the remaining 20% by Afren Plc. This news was divulged by a official who did not want to be named due to the confidential nature of the process. 

In Kenya Tullow Oil continues to drill and test the following wells Twiga 1 , Ngamia 1 well, while other companies continue to drill in the Mbawa offshore block for natural gas and oil prospects off the coast of Lamu.

On the 13th of January 2013 Tullow oil also began drilling their Sabisa 1 well in the South Omo Block in Southern Ethiopia, which they co own 50/50 with Africa Oil Corp. The primary goal of this well  is to prove that the petroleum system to the north of the Lokichar basin, in northern Kenya where Twiga 1 and Ngamia 1 wells lie, extends North into Ethiopia.

Kenya in collaboration with Western partner organisations is working on laws for the exploration, production, logistics  and monetization of natural gas. Natural gas terms are not explicitly stated in the current energy laws and regulations.