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The Ivory Coast looks to double its hydrocarbon production by 2020

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ivory coast offshore oil

The Ivory Coast, plans to double its production of hydrocarbons by 2020.

The Ivory Coast boasts one of the region’s most reliable power grids, which allows the nation to export energy to its neighbors. However, a recent economic boom in the already thriving Ivorian markets has seen the demand for energy rocket. The ever-growing demand for more energy has meant that the Ivory Coast has set itself the ambitious goal of doubling its hydrocarbon production by 2020.

The numbers behind the headline

While doubling production could be quite achievable for a nation only just embarking upon the mining of newly discovered resources, the Ivory Coast has a well-established hydrocarbon industry, in which 70% of its resources are already used up by electricity production.

The obvious questions are whether doubled production is realistic, and just what needs to be achieved if the aim is to be met. In simple terms, it means an increase from around 100,000 BOE (barrels of oil equivalent) per year, to roughly 200,000 of annual production by 2020.

Despite this seeming a large undertaking, the Ivory Coast has every reason to be confident. The recent history of its hydrocarbon industries shows hugely impressive growth, and there are plans in place to help realize its goal. From 2012 to 2013, the Ivory Coast doubled its natural gas output, reaching 220 million cubic feet per day. By 2014, this was 250 million cubic feet per day – mainly produced by the Ivorian company, Foxtrot International.

The state oil company Petroci is also working with Foxtrot and GDF Suez to ensure that natural gas contributes even further to the Ivory Coast’s energy needs. Foxtrot committed almost $1 billion over a 5 year period, in 2013, to increase gas production annually.

Petroci itself has also made marked inroads in expanding oil production, increasing its production from around 30,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2014 to a 2015 high of 53,000 bpd. Such increases, in both gas and oil, indicate that the nation is well on target to meet its grand scheme of doubling total production across the field.

Confidence in development

Foxtrot International worker

Foxtrot International worker

While the aforementioned figures are impressive, the government’s supervisor of hydrocarbon exploration and production, Ousmane Doukouré, reported that the first half of 2016 has seen oil extraction at around 45,000 bpd. While this is still a marked improvement on 2014 figures, it is down from last year’s figure. However, investment, foreign assistance, and as yet untapped resources all provide confidence.

Petroci’s Managing Director, Ibrahima Diaby, spoke at an energy conference in the country’s capital, Yamoussoukro, and indicated the scope for development. Diaby spoke on off-shore gas reserves in the country, saying, “Today we have around 60 blocks. We’ve awarded about 20.”

Companies such as Exxon Mobil and Total are working on exploration within the Ivory Coast, and in addition to outside support, the Ivorian government has pledged $3.3 billion to boost oil production over the next 5 years.

For many years, the Ivorian government focused its development efforts on the agricultural industry, and as such energy was somewhat ignored. With a concerted effort from both the government and private companies, the resource rich nation is likely to grow its output exponentially. Diaby said the outcome of the nations increased gas and oil production would boost electricity by 80% over the next 6 years.

Foxtrot International began digging 7 new gas wells in 2014, and installed a new platform at its Marlin gas field in 2015. With major international oil and gas companies invested in developing the nation’s energy infrastructure, Diaby was confident in saying, “With the current exploration, our ambition is to reach 200,000 BOE (barrels of oil equivalent) in 2020.”

Wisely, there are additional angles to meeting the Ivory Coast’s growing energy needs. Aside from the ramped up production of domestic hydrocarbon resources, Diaby also told journalists that the country would begin importing liquefied natural gas (LNG), to help supplement the gas needs of some its power plants. These imports are scheduled to begin in 2018, and the Texas based company, Endeavor Energy, confirmed that it was aiming to secure a $900 million gas-driven power project within the Ivory Coast.

If such developments continue, West Africa’s largest economy may soon become as known for its power production as its famous cocoa exporting.

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Nigeria says it paid contractors to finish economy-boosting projects

Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) – A Nigerian minister said on Friday the government had paid contractors 63.16 billion naira ($200 million) to finish delayed infrastructure projects, in an apparent bid to ease fears over the future of the schemes meant to boost the struggling economy.

Work on a series of road, power and other programmes had slowed or halted as the government struggled to make payments, amid delays in passing the national budget and foreign currency shortages.

Power, Works and Housing Minister Babatunde Fashola told an infrastructure conference in London that “63.16 billion naira have been paid out to contractors to finish infrastructure projects since the budget” was passed in May.

He did not say whether that covered all the outstanding payments. But the comments will come as a relief to contractors, many of whom were not paid for months.

They will also signal to foreign investors that there is some movement in the supply of money, which has been problematic over much of the last year due to foreign currency curbs introduced to conserve forex supplies.

The 6.06 trillion naira ($19.24 billion) budget tripled capital expenditure from the previous year in a bid to stimulate Africa’s biggest economy which is going through a crisis caused by low oil prices.

Nigeria’s economic development has been held back by erratic electricity provision and a poor road network, all of which falls under Fashola’s remit.

It was not clear whether the funds referred to by Fashola were part of the budget allocation.

Earlier this month the budget minister said Nigeria’s first quarter revenues reached only 55 percent of the government’s target due to recent attacks on oil and gas facilities in the southern Niger Delta energy hub.

 

($1 = 315.0000 naira)

 

(By Karin Strohecker. Writing by Alexis Akwagyiram; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

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South African unemployment still more than one in four

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By Mfuneko Toyana

PRETORIA (Reuters) – South Africa’s unemployment rate dipped slightly in April-June from the previous quarter’s record high but 26.6 percent of the labour force — more than 5.6 million people — remained without work.

A quarterly labour force survey published by the statistics office on Thursday showed a small decline in the jobless rate from 26.7 percent in the first quarter.

Statistics South Africa said that equated to 5.634 million people compared with 5.723 million who were out of work in the January-March quarter. Unemployment is now the largest driver of poverty in South Africa, the statistics office said.

The number of people without jobs increased by 403,000, or 1.6 percent, from a year earlier.

“Indications are that we are in a quite difficult economic situation,” said Statistician-General Pali Lehohla. “There are a huge number of job losses.”

Africa’s most advanced economy — though no longer its biggest — is on the brink of recession after contracting 1.2 percent in the first quarter as manufacturing and mining activity shrank.

“It’s a reflection of a weak economic climate,” said Nedbank economist Johannes Khoza.

“We didn’t expect much of an improvement in employment given the weak business and consumer confidence lately. A recession is still very likely.”

The central bank said last week it expected zero growth in 2016.

Under an expanded definition of unemployment which includes people who have stopped looking for work, the jobless rate rose to 36.4 percent in the second quarter, from 36.3 percent in the first three months of 2016, Statistics South Africa said.

The largest quarterly employment losses were seen in the public administration and social services sector, where 127,000 jobs were shed. Some 44,000 jobs were lost in agriculture due to a decline in the growing of crops and animal husbandry, with significant losses also seen in the transport sector.

“The high rate of unemployment contributes to much of the social tension and anguish experienced in South Africa on a daily basis, especially among the youth,” Stanlib chief economist Kevin Lings said.

South Africa’s financial hub of Gauteng, which includes the city of Johannesburg and the capital Pretoria, both set to be hotly contested in upcoming elections, had the country’s second-highest rate of unemployment at 29.5 percent.

(Editing by Catherine Evans)

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China, Africa ink $17 bil preliminary cooperation pacts

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BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese companies and banks agreed preliminary deals with African counterparts on $17 billion worth of cooperation in sectors including infrastructure, energy, pharmaceuticals and information technology, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Thursday.

Companies and financial institutions signed letter of intent for 39 cooperations pacts at a China-Africa economic and trade event in Beijing attended by more than 400 delegates.

Xinhua did not give further details.

Last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced a $60 billion development initiative at a summit in South Africa, saying it would boost agriculture, build roads, ports and railways and cancel some debts.

Such an initiative would proceed despite China’s slowing economy, Chinese officials have said.

 

 

 

 

 

(Reporting by Chen Aizhu; Editing by Catherine Evans)

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Respected Cameroonian economist joins African Development Bank

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Célestin Monga

Célestin Monga has been named Vice President of the ADB and will take charge of governance and knowledge management at the pan-African financial institution.

Célestin Monga, a distinguished Cameroonian economist with a long career in global finance, has been named Vice President of the African Development Bank.

Monga will be in charge of governance and knowledge management at the pan-African financial institution.

Since 2014, Monga was deputy managing director of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.

Prior to that, he spent 17 years at the World Bank, including working as senior economist for Europe and Central Asia. He also led a World Bank team that reviewed policies in the office of the vice president in charge of development economics and was a director for the structural transformation program in the African region.

Among top 5 economists in Africa

Monga also launched several initiatives, including debt relief for poor, indebted countries, and development of financial practices now used in many countries to protect against external financial disruption.

In 2012, he was named by Jeune Afrique magazine as one of the five best African economists. He has published economic analysis with some of the most prominent economists in the world, including Nobel laureates in economics.

Monga favors an economic integration model for Africa, in which markets coordinate more closely with an eye to exporting to the West.  “If you are a group of neighboring countries but all poor and producing the same raw materials, it is useless to invest in infrastructure to connect because there is no market or purchasing power among the others. It is necessary to seek markets where they are, especially in the West,” Monga said.

Monga holds a post-graduate degree from the University of Paris-Sorbonne. He was Mason Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and continued graduate studies at Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He received his PhD in France, at the University of Pau.

He has lectured at Boston University in the United States and the University of Bordeaux in France.

Writer and editor in economics

He is the author of several books and served as editor of the economy section of the New Encyclopedia of Africa.

His latest book on economics is the “Oxford Handbook of Africa and Economics” (2015), co-published with Justin Yifu Lin, former vice president and chief economist of the World Bank. Mongo is co-author of the forthcoming book from titled “Handbook of Structural Transformation.” His works, which explore aspects of economic and political development, have been translated into several languages and serve as teaching tools in many universities worldwide. His next book about the challenges of modernity in Africa, will be published in September.

Monga said he was “very excited” to be joining the African Development Bank at a time when its new president, Akinwumi Adesina, is plotting a new strategic course for the financial institution that promises to improve standards of living in Africa.

Bank shifts course

Adesina, who joined the bank in September, adopted a strategy of “power for all” or universal access to electricity for the continent. Lack of electricity, he said, is the greatest obstacle to development of Africa.

“The development of the energy infrastructure for Africa will drive more rapid economic and social development of the continent by reducing the cost of doing business, powering industrial growth, unlocking entrepreneurship, improving education and health systems and deepening financial services,” Adesina said.

Other priorities of the new leadership at the African Development Bank include increased investments in the private sector and a more “activist” approach to infrastructure development by helping resolve legal and regulatory bottlenecks that slow progress.

“Africa is living a crucial moment in its history and I am delighted to join the team to carry out this program,” Mongo said.

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MTN Nigeria on track to list on local stock exchange in 2017

Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Africa’s biggest mobile phone operator MTN Group said on Thursday its Nigeria unit is on track to list on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in 2017 as part of an agreement with the Federal Government.

MTN had said in June its local unit would list on the NSE after agreeing to pay a reduced fine of $1.7 billion in a settlement with the Nigerian government of a long-running dispute over unregistered SIM cards.

MTN Nigeria aims for the listing to take place during 2017, subject to market conditions.

MTN is the largest mobile phone operator in Nigeria with 57 million subscribers, and the country accounts for about a third of its revenue.

MTN Nigeria appointed Stanbic IBTC Capital, Standard Bank of South Africa and Standard Advisory London, and Citigroup Global Markets, as joint transaction advisors and global coordinators, with Stanbic acting as lead issuer.

 

(Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; Editing by David Holmes)

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South Africa’s PIC in talks with SABMiller over improved offer by AB Inbev

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JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s Public Investment Corporation (PIC) is in talks with SABMiller over an improved offer from Anheuser-Busch Inbev, the state pension fund said on Wednesday.

“We are in discussions with SABMiller on the offer price and would not like to make our view public at this point in time,” PIC Head of Corporate Affairs Deon Botha said in response to emailed questions.

The PIC is SABMiller’s fourth largest shareholder.

AB InBev raised its $100 billion-plus bid for rival brewer SABMiller on Tuesday in an attempt to quash investor dissent over an offer made less attractive by a post Brexit vote fall in the pound.

 

(Reporting by TJ Strydom; Editing by James Macharia)

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Nigerian naira hits all-time low of 334.50 per dollar

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ABUJA (Reuters) – Nigeria naira weakened to an all-time low of 334.50 against the dollar on the interbank market on Wednesday, a day after the central bank hiked interest rates to try to lure foreign investors back into local assets, traders said.

The naira fell 5.8 percent on Wednesday from its opening rate, and $10 million was traded at the new record low.

Traders said investors were pushing the currency lower to test the limit of how far it can fall, given a spread of almost 12 percent between the official and black market naira rates.

“If we have more people trying to buy the naira then it should strengthen. I think we will keep seeing the trickles … I don’t think we will see large inflows until the fundamentals of the economy improves,” one trader said.

 

(Reporting by Chijioke Ohuocha; editing by John Stonestreet)

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Nigeria’s central bank raises benchmark rate to 14%

Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigeria’s central bank raised its benchmark interest rate by a surprise 200 basis points to 14 percent on Tuesday and maintained its existing cash reserve ratios for commercial banks in a bid to stabilise the naira.

In a Reuters poll, the median forecast of 13 analysts taken July 18-21 predicted that Nigeria would raise interest rates by 100 basis points to 13 percent.

 

(Reporting by Ulf Laessing and Alexis Akwagyiram; Editing by Ed Cropley)

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Kenya’s central bank chief says inflation under control

Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Inflation in Kenya is under control despite a food price-driven rise in June and pressure from recent increases in the fuel tax, the governor of the central bank said on Tuesday, a day after the bank left interest rates unchanged.

The year-on-year rate of inflation rose to 5.80 percent in June from 5 percent in May, as prices of food items went up. The retail prices of fuel went up on July 15, ushering in more pressure on the rate.

“The MPC (Monetary Policy Committee)was quite comfortable with the dynamics,” Governor Patrick Njoroge told a news conference.

Policymakers left the benchmark lending rate unchanged at 10.50 percent on Monday saying the pressure on inflation was temporary.

Njoroge said there was ample liquidity in the banking sector, adding that it was also starting to be distributed more evenly among the country’s 42 lenders.

The governor, who has in the past said liquidity in the sector was concentrated among a handful of large lenders, said on Tuesday mid-sized banks were getting more liquidity as their larger counterparts saw a reduction in recent months.

Two mid-sized banks and a smaller lender were shut down in the nine months to April this year, raising concerns about the health of the banking sector.

He said Britain’s vote to leave the EU last month could have implications for the Kenyan economy in the medium term as foreign investors take a wait-and-see attitude.

Britain is an important source of investments for the East African nation, whose exporters are also fretting about the impact of Brexit on a trade deal between the East African Community and the EU that is supposed to be signed by October.

Tanzania has said it may not sign the deal, deepening the anxiety among Kenyan officials and exporters.

(Reporting by Duncan Miriri)

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