Nigeria's sweeping oil reform bill should resolve the Opec member's chronic funding shortfalls which have stalled expansion in the country's energy sector, a senior lawmaker said recently.

Behind a great wall of statistics emerges a pattern of domestic energy supplies falling further behind growth overall. But Africa cannot take the huge China market for granted, our Special Correspondent warns.

A new Nigerian law that gives preference to local service companies also guarantees fair access to foreign oil companies who want to do business in the west African country, the oil minister said.

ANGOLA EXPECTS NEW discoveries to boost crude output by 16 per cent next year when oil production will reach 2.2mn bpd, compared with 1.9mn barrels at present, deputy petroleum minister Anibal Octavio da Silva said.

LIBYA IS EXPECTED to finalise the sale of a 50 per cent-stake in state-owned Azzawiya refinery this year as part of plans to modernise the country's refining sector and help it meet rising domestic product demand.