Nigeria. As US President Barack Obama extracts his pound of flesh from BP in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico spill, a little acknowledged but equally catastrophic oil disaster continues to plague Nigeria. A series of spills, some of them the responsibility of the American multinational ExxonMobil, have been polluting the Niger delta for five decades.

Tanzania. Recent activity in East Africa could spur further interest for newcomers and existing oil operators to increase their position in the region, according to sector players and participants interviewed by mergermarket.

Abuja. Nigeria cautioned Exxon Mobil on Tuesday about oil spills off the Niger Delta, saying while the output lost was minor it was worried by their frequency and the damage they could do to fragile coastal communities. 

Africa's biggest energy producer has had just over 2,400 oil spills involving its foreign oil partners since 2006, according to the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), most of them onshore in the Niger Delta's creeks.

London. The Financial Times reported that Nigerian energy company Sunrise has offered USD 4.8bn to buy a stake in Exxon Mobil's joint venture in the country. Sunrise wants a 29% stake in the venture, which has estimated reserves of 1.6 billion to 2 billion barrels. Exxon holds a 40% stake and the rest is held by the Nigerian government, according to the paper.

London. Concerns are being voiced about how Ghana will manage its oil revenues as the Jubilee field, its first major offshore deposit, prepares to start producing and exporting in the fourth quarter of this year.

Bright Simons, director of development research at IMANI, an Accra-based public policy thinktank, said in an interview: "We are as concerned with financial prudence, and the management of the proceeds from the resource, as we are about transparency."

Vienna. OMV, the leading energy Group in the European growth belt, announces a new gas-condensate discovery following the successful drilling of the Ritma-1 exploration well in the Nawara Production Concession in southern Tunisia. This is the seventh successive well to encounter hydrocarbons in this area in the last four years, and underpins the significant potential of this block and of OMV's surrounding exploration permit Jenein Sud.

Houston. VAALCOannounced the Southeast Etame No. 1 (ETSEM-1) exploration well completed drilling to a total depth of 9,045 feet (2,757 meters) offshore Gabon and encountered approximately sixteen feet (five meters) of Gamba sandstone section which logged oil full to base. The ETSEM-1 well is being drilled on a prospect within the boundaries of the Etame Development Area, three miles (five kilometers) southeast of the Etame field. The Gamba sandstone section encountered in the ETSEM-1 well is the same reservoir that produces in the Etame, Avouma, South Tchibala and Ebouri fields.

Sudan. A consortium of international oil companies should be investigated for sparking a war in Sudan, a European advocacy group says.

The European Coalition on Oil in Sudan, which has headquarters in the Netherlands, calls on respective governments to investigate Swedish oil company Lundin, Austria's OMV and Malaysian energy company Petronas for their role in Sudanese conflict from 1997-2003.