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As January’s Storm Ana continues to cause immense difficulties, the approval of $60m in emergency funding to repair Malawi’s largest power plant and its transmission and distribution network will provide some relief, but the country continues to rely too heavily on hydroelectric plants on the Shire River and costly diesel generation.

An Egyptian-led East Mediterranean gas hub hangs in the balance as the partners in Israel’s offshore Leviathan and Tamar gas fields weigh up their commercial options in the face of Cairo’s ambitions to dominate the market. It is the latest in a series of manoeuvres as eastern Mediterranean states – including Libya and Turkey – manoeuvre for position.

The Zondo Commission has finally published the key volumes of part IV of the State Capture Commission Report, detailing the Gupta brothers’ takeover of South Africa’s energy sector. A range of people have been identified as potentially guilty of criminal offences, writes Dan Marks.

Ghana is preparing to offer new oil and gas exploration blocks in its eastern and western offshore basins, according to deputy energy minister Mohammed Amin Adam. The details of the blocks have not been revealed, but they will be awarded to operators through direct negotiations, rather than offered in an open bid round.

Chinese giants, sanctioned Russians, established operators and veterans from Cove Energy, the Irish independent which originated Mozambique's  historic gas play are amongst those competing for the highly prospective Rovuma basin blocks in the current licensing round. The range of players is a strong indicator of the high expectations for the next phase of upstream development. 

Key funders China Eximbank and ICBC have frozen lending to the 750MW Kafue Gorge Lower hydropower project, as state utility Zesco has been unable to meet its commitments. This has further delayed the flagship project’s completion, as lack of activity on Sinohydro’s construction site has become hard to disguise, writes Chiwoyu Sinyangwe in Lusaka

Price volatility following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a huge speculative play on the London Metal Exchange (LME) by China’s Tsingshan Holding Group sent the nickel market spiralling out of control in early March. Prices have since stabilised and are still likely to boost producers’ balance sheets. This could be a double-edged sword for Zimbabwe, which stands to make huge gains from coveted energy minerals, but which is also vulnerable to global market instability

Energy minister Neïla Gongi’s approval of ten small-scale auto-consumption solar PV projects with connections to the medium-voltage grid is another demonstration that technocrats are determined to press ahead with renewable power development, despite the considerable political obstacles caused by President Kaïs Saïed’s constitutional coup and obstructive labour unions at state utility Steg, who have blocked projects including Eni’s AFD-financed Tataouine PV plant.

The World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes set another new record for the size of its caseload in 2021, with power and energy cases the most significant area of work and disputes involving African countries also prominent.

The Millennium Challenge Corporation’s $391m Benin Power Compact has delivered significant reforms to sector regulation and Benin’s transmission and distribution network since the US government-funded facility came into force in 2017. On-grid and off-grid solar PV schemes are expected to be agreed in the near future, which project sources believe will radically alter Benin’s generation mix, reduce the cost of electricity and raise access levels, while also encouraging further private sector involvement, writes Marc Howard

There are signs of progress in Algeria’s efforts to develop renewable energy (RE) and reduce its hydrocarbons dependency, with Italian firms playing a prominent role in recent developments. Among them, Italian energy major Eni has made an important new commitment

After three years of slow growth in adding generation infrastructure to the continent’s grids, capacity additions reached new lows in Q2 2021, with only 751MW of net on-grid capacity added – the lowest figure since at least 2013, according to African Energy Live Data. This was in part due to Covid-19, but other factors are at play too which suggest recovery will not be immediate

Seplat and other companies are in talks to acquire ExxonMobil's Nigerian shallow-water business, which would continue the trend of independents buying into majors’ acreage. There is much to play for amid speculation that NNPC could pre-empt the deal, despite its lack of cash, writes James Gavin.

London AIM-listed Chariot announced on 10 January it had found “significant” volumes of natural gas at an exploration well on the Anchois prospect in the offshore Lixus licence area. Analysts believe the find could alter the kingdom’s calculations for natural gas supply – and especially its import prospects

Mozambique’s liquefied natural gas projects are gaining traction once more, with a floating LNG vessel on its way to the Eni-led project in Area 4 and security improvements and changes in the commercial landscape making a restart at TotalEnergies’ scheme in Area 1 more likely by mid-2022.