ANGOLA
Oil exploration bids delayed
Angola had delayed bidding for new licences to explore for oil in the first quarter of 2014 and would welcome bids from Russian companies, its oil minister said yesterday. Africa’s biggest crude producer after Nigeria is seeking to raise output to 2 million barrels a day in 2015 from about 1.7 million barrels a day this year. State oil company Sonangol announced plans last month to hold bidding this year and next for licences to explore for oil onshore in 10 new blocks in the Kwanza and Lower Congo basins. “It will be in the first quarter of [2014],” Oil Minister Jose Botelho de Vasconcelos said on the sidelines of Russia’s annual Energy Week event in Moscow. – Reuters
ZAMBIA
Bourse takes step forward
Zambia’s Bond and Derivatives Exchange planned to start trading currency futures next week after it appointed two banks to handle the clearing and trading, its deputy chief executive, Peter Sitamulaho, said yesterday. He said that the exchange would trade in currency futures to hedge against foreign exchange risk after the government introduced a law reinforcing the use of the local kwacha currency. Sitamulaho said Zambia’s Zanaco Bank had agreed to be the clearing bank and Bank ABC would handle the trading for the exchange. “We have set November 5 as the tentative date to start trading but that will depend on how quickly our colleagues can conclude their internal support systems,” he said, noting that Zanaco Bank was scheduled to hold a meeting to review its preparedness as the clearing bank today. – Reuters
LIBYA
Port suspension hits oil exports
Libya’s crude oil exports had fallen to the lowest level in six weeks after operations at its western port of Zawia were suspended at the weekend, a senior official at Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) and trading sources said yesterday. Locals had “stormed” the 330 000 barrels-a-day El Sharara oilfield on Saturday, the NOC official said. It provides crude for the port and the 120 000 barrels-a-day Zawia refinery. With the loss of Zawia, Libya’s exports are less than 250 000 barrels a day, according to Reuters calculations, compared with a capacity of over 1.2 million barrels a day. Until the weekend, output from the western oilfields and ports had been relatively stable after resuming last month. – Reuters