Search results

Guinea’s Linsan substation has been fully commissioned with the completion of a 225/110kV transformer installation. The facility is regionally significant as it is where two strategic 225kV international networks interconnect: the West African Power Pool (Wapp)’s Transco Côte d’Ivoire-Liberia-Sierra Leone-Guinea (CLSG) line and the Organisation for the Development of the Gambia River (OMVG)’s double-circuit Loop line.

A big new investment in the clean cooking value chain adds to the momentum building behind efforts to tackle a major social and environmental issue across sub-Saharan Africa, while downstream giant Vivo has also completed its merger with Engen and is looking to expand its C&I power offering.

In a surprise announcement, Guinea and Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation (Rosatom) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to deploy floating nuclear power capacity under a multi-decade agreement. Yet such schemes still seem some time away and Moscow’s track record in developing African nuclear power is poor.

Anglo-French independent Perenco has bought into the leading floating LNG developer, building on their existing Cameroon partnership.

South Africa has lost about 50% of its oil refining capacity since 2020, with three key refiners taken off line, leaving the country heavily reliant on imports for refined fuel products. Faced with a growing mismatch between local demand and supply, the authorities have been trying to encourage local and foreign investors to revive and expand the idle refineries and build new ones to ensure energy security, writes Tonderayi Mukeredzi.

While diesel and petroleum attract the lion’s share of downstream attention, other products are vitally important for Africa’s energy transition. In its Oil 2024 report released in June, the International Energy Agency (IEA) cites liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as a key transition fuel for Africa, predicting 5% annual growth.

Gemcorp Capital has signed an agreement with the Ministry of Energy and Water which could lead to excess power generated in Angola being exported to Namibia and the Southern African Power Pool (Sapp).

According to cabinet secretary for energy Davis Chirchir, the Kenyan government’s moratorium on IPPs is ‘unsustainable’, amid the risk of future loadshedding due to shortage of supply, while other advances are in the pipeline, including wheeling tariffs and the supply of power through embedded networks, writes Neville Otuki in Nairobi.

State-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) has signed a project development agreement (PDA) with Norway’s Golar LNG for a floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) project offshore the Niger Delta. NNPC said the development would “monetise vast proven gas reserves from shallow water resources”.

TotalEnergies and state partner Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) have taken a final investment decision (FID) to develop the Ubeta gas field in the onshore OML 58 licence area.

Zurich-based commercial and industrial (C&I) developer Candi has received equity finance from new investors to bankroll solar projects in South Africa and India.

NOA Group has inked a power purchase agreement with Tronox to supply over 200MW of wind and solar energy to the mining and chemical firm’s South African operations. The power will be facilitated through a wheeling arrangement with Eskom.

The increasingly assertive African Development Bank’s support for the proposed multi-user Liberty infrastructure corridor would enable production from HPX’s Mount Nimba iron ore play and increase demand for power from regional hydroelectric schemes. It could also lead to adjacent iron ore developments in Liberia, which is strongly backing the scheme, writes Marc Howard.

Pan-African private equity firm Inspired Evolution has closed the second round of its Evolution III fund, following on from its first $200m close in March 2023. Looking to build on its substantial support for African renewable IPPs, Evolution III will also back commercial and industrial (C&I), off-grid, microgrid and energy efficiency firms.

The African Development Bank has substantially increased its capital to stay aligned with ratings agency demands and is using a wider range of financial instruments to raise funds as group president Akinwumi Adesina shows off the AfDB’s ever increasing ambitions for infrastructure development and a wide range of other initiatives.