The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and South Africa signed a deal on October 23 that has the two jointly exploring for oil and gas in the DRC. The deal was signed by their respective state-run firms, Cohydro of DRC and PetroSA of South Africa.

Nosizwe Nokwe, head of PetroSA said the deal was a first step towards cooperation on oil exploration. Each company will assess opportunities and then decide if they make economic sense to move forward on.

It was also reported that PetroSA will start by selling oil to Congo because it can buy in bulk and get a better price to sell it on to DRC.

Get the LATEST updates from the African oil & gas industry delivered straight to your Inbox by signing up to our free weekly electronic newsletter. Each issue features all the upstream, downstream, and political news from across the continent as well as an executive calendar, corporate announcements, and technology developments.