Africa

Angola has officially announced the selection of Statoil as an operator and partner in several offshore pre-salt blocks.

Angola’s national oil company Sonangol organised a restricted public bid round for access to pre-salt acreage in the Kwanza Basin in Angola. Pre-salt blocks are blocks where the main prospective interval was deposited prior to underwater salt accumulation millions of years ago.

Petra Diamonds has announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the Finsch diamond mine in South Africa from De Beers.

Finsch is one of the world’s major diamond mines and South Africa’s second largest diamond mine by production. Petra said its acquisition marked a continuation of the company’s strategy to build a world-class diamond mining group.

Finsch will become Petra’s second major mine producing over one million carats per annum (mctpa), and will become its eighth producing diamond mine.

Walmart’s expansion into Africa has taken a step forward with the news that shareholders in South African wholesale firm Massmart have voted to accept the retail giant's bid for a 51 percent stake in the company.

The $2.5 billion dollar (€1.87 billion euro) offer was approved by over 97 percent of the South African company's shareholders, Massmart said in a statement.

Algeria’s state-run energy company, Sonatrach, plans to invest around $60 billion in boosting the country’s hydrocarbon production, according to the news agency APS.

The money will be invested over the next five years, APS said, citing the country’s energy minister Youcef Yousfi.

Around 57 per cent of the allocated funding will be spent on exploration and production activities, designed to increase the country's reserves and optimize its exploitation of its hydrocarbon deposits.

As South African business rides out the economic downturn, its consumer industries need to be responsive to customer preferences. Craig Leathwhite, CEO of General Mills South Africa, tells Andrew Pelis about the improvements being made.

As African economies develop, many nations have learnt the value of maintaining links to their former colonial pasts. In Mozambique, the Cahora Bassa Dam has delivered energy across Southern Africa for over 30 years. Andrew Pelis explores how Hidroeléctrica de Cahora Bassa has managed to maintain supplies through a turbulent 30 years, with a little help from Portugal.

Fishing is an important industry in Namibia but unlike some other fish species, the country’s merluccius capensis (shallow water hake) and merluccius paradoxes (deep water hake) are managed responsibly. Managing director Hendrik van der Westhuizen tells John O’Hanlon how Hangana Seafood (Pty) Ltd remains a sustainable business based on a sustainable resource.

Biggest doesn’t have to be best but the scale of Eskom’s Kusile coal-fired power station is of strategic importance to the hard-pressed utility: it has to catch up with ever increasing demand from industry and South Africa’s mass electrification programme.

A major contribution to improved airline efficiency in southern Africa is coming from the air traffic controllers, as Jeff Daniels learns.

Investing in technology and innovative services to drive its customer appeal, and inspired marketing to unite football with the internet, MTN South Africa is unlocking the massive potential of mobile telephony, as managing director Karel Pienaar tells John O’Hanlon.