Market Watch | - Part 26

Algeria to Ramp Up Gas Output While Putting Shale on Backburner

ALGIERS, Capital Markets in Africa: Algeria plans to raise natural-gas production almost 30 percent by the end of the decade though won’t tap its vast shale reserves for now. The North African country aims to pump 122 billion cubic meters of gas by 2020, up from 96 billion cubic meters currently, Energy Minister Noureddine Boutarfa said in an interview in Algiers. Conventional production, rather than shale, is the “immediate priority,” he said. Africa’s largest gas producer has…

OPEC Members Take Up Positions on Freeze Before Algiers Talks

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS. Capital Markets in Africa: OPEC’s decision to hold informal talks in Algiers this week has fanned speculation that the group might be about to deviate from a two-year-old policy of pumping without limits, which succeeded in hurting rival suppliers but also sent prices into free fall. A previous attempt to agree on an output freeze, including non-OPEC member Russia, collapsed in Doha in April when Saudi Arabia walked away because Iran refused to participate. This…

South Africa’s Rand Shows a Little Local Strife Can’t Derail Emerging Gains

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JOHANNESBURG, Capital Markets in Africa: For evidence that fundamentals hardly matter in today’s world of easy money, look no further than the rand. In a quarter marked by a political feud between South Africa’s president and his finance minister, stagnant growth and mounting concern that the country may lose its investment-level credit status, the rand returned 11 percent for investors selling the dollar to chase higher yields — more than twice as much as its next-best peer….

Nigeria’s Currency Woes a Boon for Top Palm-Oil Producer

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LAGOS, Capital Markets in Africa: Nigeria’s ban on importers accessing foreign exchange for certain products is proving a boon for the country’s biggest palm-oil producer as it stokes demand for domestic goods. Profit at Presco Plc, a Benin City-based manufacturer of the edible oil, more than doubled in the six months through June as sales jumped 60 percent to 7.5 billion naira ($24 million), according to results published in July. The outlook for the next four…

Nigerian Lawmakers to Probe Claim $17 Billion of Oil Stolen

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LAGOS, Capital Markets in Africa: Nigeria’s lower house of parliament ordered an investigation into whether $17 billion of fuel exports were stolen. Most of the oil and liquefied natural gas ended up in the U.S. and some went to China and Norway between 2011 and 2014, Johnson Agbonayinma, a lawmaker, told the House of Representatives in the capital, Abuja, on Thursday. The missing products include about 58 million barrels of oil and 727,000 metric tons…

OPEC Under Pressure to Act in Algiers as Surplus Triples

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LAGOS, Capital Markets in Africa: As OPEC prepares to meet in Algiers next week, the oil market is reminding the group’s members what’s at stake if they fail to reach a deal. More than 800,000 barrels a day of additional crude is pouring into the global market this month compared with August as Russia pumps at an all-time high while Libya and Nigeria restore disrupted supplies, according to statements from their ministry officials. That would…

Richest African Says Nigeria Needs $15 Billion for Economy

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LAGOS, Capital Markets in Africa: Nigeria needs $15 billion from asset sales and borrowing to revive a slumping economy and boost foreign reserves, according to Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man. “Through sales of assets, through loans from Bank of China or wherever, we need something like $15 billion,” Dangote, a Nigerian national, said in a Bloomberg TV interview at the U.S.-Africa Business Forum in New York on Wednesday. “We’re having a problem as the reserves are low….

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