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Prospects for the regional electricity supply industry and West African power trading took a huge leap forward when two major networks interconnected at Linsan in Guinea. Much work remains to be done after the on 2 April link-up, but the OMVG-CLSG interconnection points to a more positive direction of travel for a West African Power Pool that is starting to excite market interest.

Italian major Eni has announced a new find on Block CI-205, which it called the second-largest hydrocarbons discovery to date in Côte d’Ivoire, following its Baleine discovery in 2021.

Vaalco Energy’s purchase of Svenska Petroleum Exploration will give the US indie a 27.4% interest in Block CI-40, which holds the producing Baobab field offshore Côte d’Ivoire, in a deal that further reduces beleaguered Saudi-Ethiopian tycoon Sheikh Mohammed Al-Amoudi’s business empire.

Robert Friedland’s High Power Exploration (HPX) plans to develop a rail line to take iron ore from its Nimba licence in south-eastern Guinea to a deep-water port at Didia in Liberia. It is the second major Mano River region iron ore rail announcement in recent months following the giant Simandou scheme, and promises to increase demand for electricity from Côte d’Ivoire’s hydroelectric plants.

Local conglomerate PFO Africa has signed a PPA for Côte d’Ivoire’s largest-ever solar development, near the northern city of Ferkessédougou.

An oversubscribed Eurobond issue in January indicated that Côte d’Ivoire’s strong economic performance – including 6.5% GDP growth, big infrastructure investments and Eni’s major Baleine oil and gas field – has been enough to allay investors’ concerns over the presidential succession and wider regional instability. These issues feature in the first of African Energy’s new series of Risk Management Reports (RMRs), which will provide updates, analysis and context on key political, social, economic and energy trends in countries across the continent. In line with the model established by African Energy’s sister publication Gulf States Newsletter (GSN), a ‘risk grade’ (explained below) is assigned to each country. A full list of African risk grades will follow soon.

Côte d’Ivoire’s three times oversubscribed $2.6bn dollar Eurobond issue underlines President Alassane Dramane Ouattara’s reputation for prudent economic management – a status that will add to pressures from supporters for ‘ADO’ to stand for a controversial fourth term – and offers some hope for under-pressure African borrowers who could benefit from renewed access to international capital markets and the relatively attractive interest rates CdI has secured.

UAE-based players have used COP28 to commit – and recommit – to projects that could supply over 12GW of renewables capacity across Africa. Emiratis argue this displays a willingness to push projects forward and shoulder risk, while others have failed to deliver – and if critics complain they are also prominent in the oil lobby, Abu Dhabi can counter that the UAE has assumed a leading role in enabling Africa’s energy transition.

Italian major Eni has said it is pumping 8,000 b/d more than forecast at its Baleine project offshore Côte d'Ivoire, with output exceeding 20,000 b/d, compared to initial predictions of 12,000 b/d.

Houston-based Murphy Oil has said it will sell some non-core assets in North America to fund work on the Paon discovery in Block CI-103, one of five Côte d’Ivoire offshore blocks it picked up in June 2023.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF) are anchor investors in a bond issue intended to support a government-led programme to connect more low-income households to the national grid.

Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) has requested expressions of interest (EoI) for a project supervising engineer consultancy for the Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea Rural Electrification Project (CLSG-RE).

The United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) has signed a grant agreement with Washington, DC-headquartered Ecostar Energy’s Ivorian subsidiary to provide technical assistance for its biomass plant in the northern Boundiali department.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on 4 October it had reached an agreement with Côte d’Ivoire (CdI) to release a further $500m in financial support, following a review of its economic reform programme. 

French geoscience firm CGG has started a 3D reimaging programme in the offshore Tano Basin, close to the deep-water Baleine field where Italian major Eni recently started production.