Search results

While North Africa’s popular revolutions focus the world’s attention on too long silent majorities’ demands for a political voice and good governance, conflicts and crises that beset many sub-Saharan polities fester away from the global media’s prying eyes. Chronically unstable these regions might be, but investors keen to book new oil reserves and other resources often overlook political realities, adding to a volatile mix

Questions of greater social equity and sustainable development, more stringent governance and controls over globalisation widely discussed in a world looking to emerge from coronavirus are all ideas that President John Magufuli has worked into Tanzania’s policy mix since taking office in November 2015. Magufuli has built up popular support with his assaults on international capital, donor interference and even Beijing and the burden of Chinese debt. However, Tanzania’s experience suggests that good ideas do not make for good policy if they are wrongly implemented.

GE is supplying UK-based developer Clarke Energy with two of its Jenbacher J420 biogas engines for a new 2.8MW agricultural biogas power project owned by Tropical Power at a vegetable farm near Lake Naivasha. The farm’s biomass waste, including trimmings and unsold vegetables, will be processed in a digester system to create biogas, which will fuel the engines to generate renewable electricity. The new plant will produce enough electricity to meet the farm’s needs and deliver surplus electricity to the local grid.

The Gambia River Basin Development Organisation (OMVG) is seeking expressions of interest from technical, legal and transactions advisers for its planned energy project. This will entail developing the 128MW Sambangalou hydroelectric power plant on the Gambia River in Senegal, which is expected to produce 402GWh/yr of power, and the 240MW Kaleta hydro facility on the Konkouré River in Guinea, which will generate 946GWh/yr. OMVG is also seeking to install a 225kV interconnection between its four member countries Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau and Senegal. Funding is being sought from the African Development Bank.

Leaked national electoral commission data showed Martin Fayulu had Democratic Republic of Congo’s presidency stolen from him in the 23 December poll won by Félix Tshisekedi Tshilombo. Ex-president Joseph Kabila Kabange’s candidate Emmanuel Shadary gained only 23.8% of the official vote – and unofficially much less – but politicians allied to now senator-for-life Kabila have since taken a dominant position in national and local government and parastatals.

For a candidate who promised to “drain the swamp” and represent communities ground down by the depredations of big business, President-elect Donald Trump has done a good job of placing those he attacked before his election into positions of power. Investment bank Goldman Sachs has three former and current executives in key positions. Big Oil is represented not only by climate change sceptics, but in ExxonMobil chief executive Rex Tillerson it has one of its genuine stars at the helm of US foreign policy.

Dutch development finance institution FMO has arranged a $24m senior loan for the financing of a 14MW run-of-the-river hydropower project at Kilembe Donors fund small hydro

General Electric (GE) announced on 24 February that it has signed a fast-tracked seven-month turnkey agreement to supply equipment and services including two 9E.03 gas turbines and electrical balance of plant for national utility Société Tunisienne de l’Electricité et du Gas’ project to add 250MW to its Bouchemma power plant. The deal includes a two-year contractual services agreement with a possible ten-year extension. A gas power plant using GE turbines has been operating at the coastal site in Bouchemma since the 1990s. It is hoped that the additional capacity will help keep the lights on at tourist resorts during the summer. GE has 15 turbines at seven plants in Tunisia with combined capacity of more than 1.8GW.

Production cuts by a majority of Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) producers, working in coordination with non-Opec exporters led by Russia, have helped to raise oil prices from their 2014-16 lows; the strategy seems likely to maintain crude benchmarks at around $50 for some time. While second-guessing the oil price is a hazardous business, African Energy’s soundings of major international oil companies (IOCs) suggest this represents a ‘new normal’ for the industry, as factored into corporations’ base case scenario-planning.

GE Oil and Gas is to supply equipment and technology for the Chevron-operated Lianzi project, to bring the offshore field straddling Angola and Republic of Congo (Brazzaville) on stream

London-based offshore Block 2B operator Thombo Petroleum Ltd has awarded a 3D seismic acquisition and processing contract to WesternGeco, covering 686km2 of the A‐J1 graben off South Africa’s west coast.

As this is African Energy’s 200th issue, the editorial team is minded to reflect on past stories and their links to current news

Côte d’Ivoire has escalated a simmering border row with Ghana by demarcating new blocks that overlap with Ghana’s western acreage

State utility company Office National de l’Electricité has lined up a E50m ($67.6m) buyer credit to support the construction of a 72MW power plant in the Agadir region to be built by Man Diesel & Turbo.

Prime Minister Hailemarian Desalegn has named Sileshi Bekele as new minister of water, irrigation and electricity. An ethnic Oromo with a background in hydraulics, he had recently been working with the Ethiopian embassy in New York in rallying diaspora Ethiopians to mobilise support for science and maths education in Ethiopia, the Ethiopian News Agency said. He was previously a lecturer and dean at Arba Minch Water Technology Institute, and worked for several international water resources organisations. Motuma Mekassa, the previous minister, has moved to the Ministry of Mines, Petroleum and Natural Resources.