News Centre: Hot topics

Green hydrogen (GH₂) prospects in Africa are developing at breakneck speed. But the biggest questions remain unanswered.  

• Yes, Africa has the resources but can these highly capital intensive projects be made bankable while lenders demand heavy risk premiums on African projects?
• Can commercial offtake agreements be put in place without penalising more expensive first movers?  
• And which projects will prevail?  Competition is growing for sites with the best wind, solar irradiation, water supply, logistics and access to market.  
• If this is yet another scramble for Africa, will it bring sustainable development, unlike the 19^th and 20^th century quests for physical resources?

Momentum for Mozambique's LNG projects has been slowly building following Eni's export of its first LNG cargo from the troubled Cabo Delgado region in 2022. 

African Energy continues to follow the development of these key projects and the underlying security situation which caused force majeure to be triggered, following  attacks by jihadist insurgents in March 2021.
 

In every country and region of Africa the addition of more transmission capacity will open new IPP opportunities, allow more wind and solar to be added, will stimulate trade making generation projects more bankable, and of course will bring power to more businesses and people, improving lives and stimulating economic growth.  Detailed planning, better financial models, and improved regulation are finally being put in place at utility, power pool and multilateral institution level. The test is whether serious money will follow.

African Energy is following what could be the single most important phase of African power markets development. 

African Energy’s latest piece of investigative journalism is based on a stream of leaked documents, mostly in Arabic, which have been translated and verified by John Hamilton, a senior editor who over the past 17 years has reported in detail and in depth on Libya's energy sector including all aspects of the oil, gas and electric power sectors.

This exposé of mismanagement, corruption and lack of accountability is part of an ongoing reporting project.

African Energy has examined dozens of internal documents from the Ministry of Oil and Gas, NOC, the Government of National Unity, and other related institutions which provide a unique insight into how Libya’s oil and gas sector is being managed.  African Energy’s research has revealed key risks which any participant in the sector will need to understand and navigate.