London. China's Cnooc Ltd. and French oil major Total SA are each expected to acquire a third of Tullow Oil PLC's oil assets in Uganda, Tullow said in a statement Wednesday.

Uganda - East Africa has become a promising new frontier for oil exploration and major multinationals are jostling for the rights to search for black gold, industry experts said.

Tanzania - ExxonMobil Corp. is in advanced talks to buy into Statoil ASA's block in Tanzania, people familiar with the matter said Friday, a move that would mark the first entry of an oil major oil company into the East African nation.

Algeria - Algeria may let some clients reduce the amount of gas they buy but is unlikely to follow Europe's other gas suppliers by incorporating spot market prices into its contracts, its energy minister said on Monday.

Bangalore. Israel Corporation Limited (TLV:ILCO) (Tel Aviv, Israel), a subsidiary of the Ofer Holdings Group (OHG) (Tel Aviv, Israel), plans to ramp up power generation capacity to about 800 to 1,200 megawatts (MW) per year, at an estimated investment of more than $1 billion. The three-fold capacity expansion plan will put Israel Corporation at the top position among private power producers in the country.

Egypt - Sea Dragon Energy has entered into an Alliance Agreement with Tanmia Petroleum Company. Under the terms of this Alliance Agreement, Sea Dragon and TPC will have the exclusive right to jointly appraise, develop and produce hydrocarbons from certain undeveloped and under-developed oil and natural gas opportunities located in the Arab Republic of Egypt.

Nigeria - Pacific Asia Petroleum, Inc., a U.S.-based energy company engaged in the development, production and distribution of oil and gas, has entered into an amendment to the Sale and Purchase Agreement previously entered into with CAMAC Energy Holding Limited and certain of its affiliates (“CAMAC”) on November 18, 2009 with respect to the pending acquisition by the company of all of CAMAC’s interest in the Oyo Oilfield, located offshore of Nigeria, which commenced production in December 2009.

Texas. The formula for chaos is the same. Oil is discovered in a country that has, until then, been struggling to find its economic identity. A foreign company comes in pretending to have the country’s utmost interest at heart. Usually, if that company is genuine, it comes in to do business and minds its own business.