Pinsent Masons has been active in Africa since the early 1990s when we exported the private financing model to South Africa, culminating in the development of the Gautrain. Since then, the firm has provided an entire project lifecycle service, supporting those who have an economic interest in Africa’s major energy, natural resources and infrastructure assets, and are proud to have used our legal expertise to help facilitate the financing and growth of vital energy infrastructure on the continent, and to have provided strategic advice and representation to market participants.

Algeria and Libya are two of the world’s most important petroleum-producing countries. The two countries share a similar economic structure although Algeria has a more diversified G.D.P. composition than Libya has. Algeria has a preponderant role as a natural gas exporter, while Libya has an analogous role in relation to crude oil. However, similarly to many other hydrocarbons producers, Algeria and Libya are having some difficulties in attracting foreign investors at a time when these two countries need state-of-the-art petroleum technology and financial resources to develop their petroleum assets.

In 2017 we saw a continuation of the upturn in upstream M&A which began in late 2016. The oil & gas industry has been through a sustained period of focus on cost cutting but, as the oil price stabilises, many players are now seeing an opportunity to refocus on growth.

Following some exciting world-class discoveries, the oil and gas industry’s eyes were all on the MSGBC Basin. Soaring to the top of the list as Africa’s most exciting new E&P hotspot, the basin was the new “cool kid on the block”. However, this excitement has recently been dampened by some disappointing results…here’s why you might want to hold back that judgement for now, and why the MSGBC Basin should still be on your radar in 2018.