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Briefings and Reports 2
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A detailed and frank analysis of Libya’s energy sector
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On the page below you will find a selection of articles from the African Energy archive. All links preceded by a padlock symbol require a subscription.
A new energy minister was named on 18 November in a third government reshuffle since the July 2003 transition. Nine portfolios changed hands. New minister Salomon Banamuhere, who replaces Pierre Muyumba, belongs to President Joseph Kabila’s Peoples’ Party for Reconstruction and Development. Issue 93, December 2005.more
MagEnergy gears up for Inga rehab with refurb order
TSX Venture Exchange-listed MagIndustries Corporation’s MagEnergy subsidiary has given hydropower specialist Ingérop South Africa until June 2006 to complete studies and documentation for the first phase refurbishment of the Inga II power plant, under its rehabilitation-operate-transfer (ROT) agreement with Democratic Republic of Congo’s Société Nationale d’Electricité (Snel) (AE 88/11, 81/11). Issue 92, November 2005.more
Exploration ambitions, political complications
Following the signing of a petroleum exploration agreement in the Congo Central Basin (Cuvette Centrale) region with a company identified as US Petroleum, the government expects further progress in the north-east, where it has taken some time assessing the expressions of interest received for work near the Ugandan border (AE 84/21). Issue 92, November 2005.more
Groundhog day or seachange as DRC’s Snel tries to share power and balance the books
Many utilities face problems with their management, finances and clientele – and then there is Snel. The DR Congo parastatal could be the big winner from plans to develop its peerless Inga hydropower resource, and from international efforts to create a functioning post-conflict economy, but the technical and governance challenges are daunting, write Jon Marks, recently in Kinshasa, and François Misser in Brussels. Issue 91 ,October 2005.more
EnerGulf MoU for coastal zone
Houston-based EnerGulf Resources has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Energy Ministry agreeing to negotiate the final terms of a hydrocarbon exploration and production concession for the onshore area known as Les Zones du Bassin Cotier (ZBC). Issue 91, October 2005.more
Inga: so much to offer, so far from rehabilitation
DR Congo remains a deeply troubled placed, but its huge electricity potential might yet hold the key to recovery, writes Jon Marks, recently in Kinshasa and Inga. Issue 90, September 2005.more
MagEnergy to invest further in Inga I and II in ambitious Congo push
A Canadian venture’s apparently major commitment to Inga will not only provide a shot in the arm for the embattled DRC, but will further plans to develop a major minerals industry project in neighbouring Republic of Congo. Issue 88, July 2005.more
DR Congo tries to take on governance concerns
Democratic Republic of Congo’s parliament has extended the transitional government’s term by another six months, but the authorities remain entangled in governance problems with considerable fallout for the energy sector, François Misser reports. Issue 88, July 2005.more
Regional ambitions take on a global scale (Inga extensively referenced)
At first glance South Africa’s National Integrated Resource Plan 2 (NIRP2), developed by the National Electricity Regulator (NER) and a group of experts, provides an impressive guide to SA policy-makers’ thinking about power needs in the coming decades. But among the several criticisms levelled at NIRP2’s vision for future South African power supply – some of which are very creditably published as appendices to the report – is the justified cavil that only one foreign project, the Mphanda Nkua hydropower scheme in Mozambique, is mentioned. Issue 87, June 2005.more
Eskom champions Inga plans
The prospect that the 40GW ‘Grand Inga’ scheme might one day see the light of day took another step forward – this time in the glare of considerable general media attention – when South Africa’s Eskom Holding presented its plans for the construction of the third and fourth phases of the Inga hydropower project at a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) conference in Nairobi on 24 February. Issue 84, March 2005.more
Cohydro seeks to revive Central Basin, Albertine Graben interest
Has DR Congo got what it takes to emerge as a significant new African oil exporter? Cohydro is enthusiastic, reports from Jon Marks from the APPA conference in Algiers but companies still face security problems, writes Thalia Griffiths in Entebbe, Uganda. Issue 84, March 2005.more
Rehab, monitoring tender for Inga I and II
The authorities in Kinshasa has invited bids by 22 March for rehabilitation of three turbine-generator units and vibration monitoring at one of the two power plants in the 1,753MW Inga hydropower complex. Issue 83, February 2005.more
Onshore prospectors sought, downstream clean-up
The Ministry of Energy in Kinshasa is trying to attract new players to its onshore acreage after failing in 2003 to agree a production-sharing deal with Heritage Oil for a 7.7m acre exploration permit in the Lake Albert area bordering Uganda. Issue 82, January 2005.more
Western Corridor: huge promise complicated by DRC politics
Grandiose plans linked to the Western Corridor joint venture, established last October in South Africa to organise electricity generation and transport from the future Inga III dam, will take time to materialise – and this process will not be helped by the fact that all the Congolese interlocutors had been removed from office by end-November, writes François Misser. Issue 81, December 2004.more
MagAlloy plays the cross-border co-operation card to tap Inga
The TSX Venture Exchange-listed Magnesium Alloy Corporation has made substantial progress with its plan to use electricity sourced at Inga in Democratic Republic of Congo to power its planned 60,000 t/yr magnesium smelter at Kouilou in Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), in one of the more imaginative schemes to emerge from Central Africa in recent years (AE 79/11). Issue 81, December 2004.more
Five sign Westcor MoU
Regional power integration moved a step further forward on 22 October, when ministers and utilities from Angola, Botswana, DR Congo, Namibia and South Africa signed a memorandum of understanding to develop Westcor, a joint venture to oversee regional generation and distribution via the Western Corridor scheme. Issue 80, November 2004. more
Drought hits Inga, but Snel guarantees exports
Drought has reduced power output from the Inga dam, but Snel has reassured its regional clients that exports from the DRC will not be affected, reports François Misser. Issue 79, October 2004. more
Great Lakes neighbours to revive Sinelac
The first task of a revived Great Lakes integration initiative will be to launch a feasibility study for a complete overhaul of the Ruzizi II facility on the Rwanda-Democratic Republic of Congo border. The Ruzizi II hydropower station has an installed capacity of 40MW and sells electricity to Rwanda and Burundi. Issue 79, October 2004. more
Energy projects may yet power a revival of Great Lakes co-operation
Burundi, DRC and Rwanda have announced plans to relaunch their regional economic community, the CEPGL. Energy projects are a top priority for these post-conflict economies, reports François Misser. They should receive substantial support provided the minimum of governance standards are obeyed. Issue 77, August 2004. more
Congolese utility gets tough on non-payers
World Bank support is helping Democratic Republic of Congo’s state power company restore its infrastructure, while Snel itself is getting tougher on non-paying clients at home and abroad, François Misser reports. Issue 74, May 2004.more
Czechs win second hydro contract
Czech hydro turbine manufacturer CKD Blansko Engineering (CBE) has started work on the refurbishment of the Lubilanji II-uno hydropower plant. Issue 73, April 2004.more
Power games and electricity opportunities highlight reunification challenges
The Kinshasa government has secured a big donor package and settled inter-ministerial conflicts over hydrocarbons, but reunification poses many more challenges, writes François Misser, recently in DR Congo and Paris. Issue 70, January 2004.more
The Congolese cabinet, representing a transition government made up of supporters of President Joseph Kabila and opposition groups, has at last confirmed the transfer of the hydrocarbons portfolio to the Ministry of Energy, ending a dispute which emerged at the beginning of transition government’s mandate in July (AE 66/11). Issue 70, January 2004.more
With recovery in DR Congo, Inga rehabilitation could start by mid-2004
The improving political climate in the Congolese capital is not yet matched by better power supply, but this could change as rehabilitation of the Inga complex gets under way next year, François Misser reports from Kinshasa. Issue 69, December 2003. more
DRC and Zambia among the gainers as World Bank approves credit for Southern African Power Pool
The World Bank board on 11 November approved a $178.48m credit to help develop the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP). With particular emphasis on transmission, the project aims to facilitate the development of a regional power market to push down prices and encourage investment. Issue 69, December 2003. more
Kinshasa’s new ministers battle for oil portfolio
At the Kinshasa International Fair at the end of July, visitors were baffled to see banners for one stand reading “Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons” while others welcomed them to the stand of the “Ministry of Energy and Hydrocarbons”. It seems responsibility for hydrocarbons was transferred secretly by presidential decree on 24 March from the Ministry of Mines to the Ministry of Energy, which is now led by Jean-Pierre Kalema Losona, a former executive at Fina-Congo and Mobil Oil, but above all a staunch ally of President Joseph Kabila. Issue 66, July 2003.more
DRC minister’s resignation dashes recovery hopes
Democratic Republic of Congo’s brief honeymoon with international financial institutions (IFIs) is threatened with divorce following the resignation on 17 February of Finance Minister Freddy Matungulu. It was an open secret that the World Bank and International Monetary Fund lobbied last December’s Inter-Congolese Dialogue talks in Pretoria for Matungulu to remain in office during the transition to democracy – whose timetable is itself in doubt. Issue 60, March 2003.more
Power vacuum, but electricity firms lured to DRC
Foreign investors and regional clients are interested in DRC’s enormous potential, despite the inability of the government and rebels to reach agreement over a stable democratic transition. A gap between interest and actual investment remains but mega-projects could still be launched in the coming years, such is DRC’s hydropower potential. This is estimated at 100,000MW, making it by far Africa’s biggest resource with more than twice South African giant Eskom’s total output in 2001. Issue 57, December 2002.more
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