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The resolution of a blockade at the Marsa al-Harigah terminal in mid-May averted what many expected to be a highly damaging financial and political crisis. However, it leaves unresolved the main grievances that provoked leaders in Cyrenaica to shut the port and deprive Tripoli of revenues earned from the sale of crude produced in the east of the country. The continued political disagreements and the expected delivery by a Russian company of LYD4bn worth of bank notes to the Benghazi-based administration will provide fertile ground for further disputes over both money and oil.

Following the resolution of the Ghana-Côte d’Ivoire border dispute, paving the way for production to increase, Tullow Oil has completed the financing of $2.5bn of reserves-base lending (RBL) facilities. The total is split between a commercial bank facility of $2.4bn and an International Finance Corporation facility of $100m. The fully committed facilities are revolving, with a three-year grace period and final maturity of November 2024.

Sharjah-based Dana Gas has made its second gas discovery of the year in the West Manzala concession in the Nile Delta (AE 154/17).

Uganda is close to signing a formal development agreement for a long-mooted 60,000 b/d refinery in Hoima district. Sources close to the talks told African Energy that an agreeement had been initialled and signing was expected within days. Ugandan officials spent more than three years negotiating with a Russian consortium led by RT Global Resources before talks collapsed in June 2016 and reserve bidder SK Engineering & Construction indicated that it was no longer interested in the project.

Zimbabwe is highly unlikely to eradicate the crony capitalist structures that have favoured the Mugabe clan and other Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) grandees any time soon. But the president’s departure could favour a measured transition, building on initiatives to normalise the economy undertaken by regime officials such as Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor John Mangudya and Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) managing director Noah Fari Gwariro. Even at 92 years old, it seems imprudent to write off President Robert Mugabe, whose ruthless political cunning has seen off international sanctions and domestic challenges.

Less concerned about growing political tensions than about geology suggesting the West African Transform Margin extends further to the north-west than previously thought, Mauritania is emerging from the doldrums to attract IOCs looking for the next big frontier

Flex LNG Nigerian project; Chinese CTL plans; Total/CNOOC New energies co-operation

The government has revived controversial plans for the 2,100MW Stiegler’s Gorge dam in the Selous Game Reserve, despite environmentalists’ concerns about the potential impact on the World Heritage site. Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn visited Tanzania in March and agreed to send a team of experts to advise on the project, planned for the Stiegler’s Gorge canyon on the Rufiji River in southern Tanzania. A delegation led by Ethiopian minister of water, irrigation and electricity Sileshi Bekele arrived at the end of June to meet Tanzanian officials.

Société Nationale d’Electricité du Burkina has again extended the deadline for bids for the turnkey construction of two solar photovoltaic (PV) projects totalling 30MW to 20 May. The previous deadlines were 29 April, and 28 February. Bids are sought for the construction of a 20MW plant near Koudougou in Boulkiemdé province in the Centre-Ouest region (lot 1) and a 10MW facility in the city of Kaya, the capital of the province of Sanmatenga in the Centre-Nord region (lot 2), as well as their connection to the national grid.

Regular brownouts in the capital and a more precarious position still in many provinces are driving the authorities towards an ambitious generation development programme

The Chamber of Mines of Zambia (CMZ) has launched legal action challenging an Energy Regulation Board (ERB) decision to raise electricity tariffs for mining companies (AE 279/8). Court documents named the applicants as Lumwana Mining Company, Kansanshi Mining, Lubambe Copper Mines, Mopani Copper Mines, Chibuluma Mines, NFC Africa Mining and Chambishi Metals.

While Gazprom has not entirely withdrawn from the Kudu gas-to-power project, news that the stake has changed hands highlights tension between the Russian major and Namibian authorities, writes Michael Wooldridge

In a fresh blow to efforts to turn round South Africa’s struggling power sector, Eskom has been plunged into chaos by a public row between chief executive Jacob Maroga and chairman Bobby Godsell.

Two consortia have been selected to build, own and operate two solar photovoltaic (PV) power plants with a total capacity of 20MW, under the pilot Global Energy Transfer Feed-in Tariffs (GET FiT) programme (AE 289/8). Uganda’s Simba Telecom in partnership with Italy’s Building Energy and a consortium of Access Power MEA of the United Arab Emirates and Spain’s TSK Electronica will build the country’s first solar projects in the Tororo and Soroti districts in eastern Uganda, at a combined cost of $32.5m, the Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA) announced on 10 December.

The newsflow out of South Africa is unprecedented in its volume and the seriousness of the allegations in its content. The run-up to the African National Congress (ANC) elections, which will take place during the 54th National Conference in Kimberley on 16-20 December and are likely to decide the next president of the country, has seen a firestorm of accusations and political manoeuvring with the energy sector at its heart.