There is a high possibility that this year’s International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) election for a new Secretary General could result in a first for women as three of the seven candidates are female, but whether it will also be a first for Africa is hard to say. Nevertheless I am fairly confident in calling a two-horse race for the top position at the upcoming IMO election in July this year.

GABON: The DHIBM-3H production well has been successfully drilled, completed and handed over to production operations without incident. The well encountered good quality oil saturated reservoir sands in the regionally prolific Gamba formation.

SOUTH AFRICA: Members of the Forestry, Fisheries and Environment portfolio committee raised a number of questions that remain successfully answered by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) at a meeting held during the second half of March.

NIGERIA: The successful establishment of Nigeria’s Fisheries Monitoring Centre with stations in Abuja and Lagos was highlighted during a four-day, fisheries-focused interagency workshop in Lagos, Nigeria, last month.

SOUTH AFRICA: A new consortium is exploring the options to develop a maritime green corridor for the zero-emission shipping of iron ore between South Africa and Europe – in an initiative to take the first steps towards the region’s involvement in shipping’s carbonisation.

Climate activists are making more than noise about 3D seismic studies being used to delineate oil and gas reserves offshore Africa. They’ve proceeded with legal action that may force Shell Plc to pull the plug permanently on its search for hydrocarbons along South Africa’s Wild Coast, the country’s poorest province.

Ghana and Cape Verde are represented amongst the seven recipients of the 2023 Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation and will join a network of 202 marine fellows from 42 countries.

AFRICA: Up to a thousand ships flagged to the Cook Islands, Palau, Sierra Leone, and Togo will be targeted for safety, maintenance and seafarer welfare inspections across the Mediterranean Sea in the coming eight weeks by an army of inspectors from the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), seafarers’ unions and port authorities.