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The government plans to advertise at least five oil exploration licences repossessed from companies that failed to meet work programme obligations, according to mines and minerals development permanent secretary Paul Chanda. Currently, Zambia has 12 active exploration licences from the 17 it initially issued to foreign and local firms scouting for oil and gas in Africa’s second biggest copper producer.

Uganda has launched its first licensing round, offering six blocks in the Albertine Graben totalling 2,938km2. The blocks cover areas relinquished by Tullow, Total and CNOOC, and have seismic and well data, and in some cases smaller oil and gas discoveries. Energy and mineral development minister Irene Muloni told African Energy in November a key priority for the government in the bid round would be to encourage service providers to increase efficiency and push down costs, so as to minimise their cost recovery and maximise the state’s share.

India’s Vikram Solar has partnered Johannesburg-based Powertech Africa to sell its solar PV modules to utility-scale projects and households in 14 African countries. Powertech Africa – which has established a network of offices providing electricity distribution products and is a subsidiary of Allied Electronics Corporation Ltd (Altron) – will be sales agent, selling 250Wp Eldora Ultima 60 cell modules. By May, the pair hope to have sold modules amounting to capacity of 1MW.

The government is working on the final – and most sensitive – phase of its price liberalisation and subsidy reduction programme, covering butane and sugar, general affairs and governance minister Mohammed Louafa told the lower house of parliament on 8 June. But implementation of the reform “will be the responsibility of the government named following the general election on 7 October”, Louafa said. This saves the current administration courting unpopularity in the four months before polling.

The West African Power Pool (WAPP) General Secretariat invites expressions of interest by 2 October from consulting firms to provide technical assistance for the optimisation of the 88MW Mount Coffee hydropower plant. All four 22MW units at the refurbished plant on the Saint Paul River were synchronised with the grid in May 2017, marking the return to full operation of the run-of-river station for the first time since 1990, when it was largely destroyed during the country’s civil war.

AIM-listed Ncondezi Energy has suspended talks with Shanghai Electric Power (SEP) on its 300MW coal-to-power scheme in Tete province, saying the Chinese company had not come up with funding for the project. The companies signed a joint development agreement in January 2016 for SEP to invest up to $25.5m for a 60% stake in the project. Ncondezi said it would now talk to other potential partners that had expressed interest.

The government has ratified an agreement for Canada’s Talisman Energy to take over the operatorship of Block SL-4B-10 (AE 231/13).

Move by the US major puts a couple of small players in an enviable position in one of the West Coast Transform Margin’s emerging E&P plays, writes Thalia Griffiths

The US Trade and Development Agency signed an agreement on 24 March to provide a grant of $645,000 to the Ghana Grid Company to fund a feasibility study

London-based Solo Oil has said it plans to take up its option for a 12.5% interest in the Ruvuma production-sharing contract (PSC) in south-east Tanzania from Aminex subsidiary Ndovu Resources (AE 176/17).

A report prepared by the Petroleum Revenue Special Taskforce was leaked to the press in late October, claiming that $29bn has been swallowed by a natural gas price-fixing scam – allegedly involving Total, Eni, Royal Dutch Shell and state officials – while $6bn/yr was said to go missing annually due to oil theft. Oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke declined to comment on the report.

The World Bank Group’s Inspection Panel (IP) has raised a number of concerns in its investigation of the Bujagali dam project. Groups led by Uganda’s National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE) requested an inspection last year (AE 119/23). The project has also been investigated by the African Development Bank’s Independent Recourse Mechanism.

The government will fund a giant 5,250MW hydro project on the Abay River to be built by Salini at a cost of nearly $5bn, writes Michael Wooldridge

Tunur, the UK-based developer of a project to export power generated by concentrated solar technology from Tunisia to Europe, has acquired additional financial backers and is targeting first financial close within 18 months. The company has persisted in pushing forwards its plan despite the political uncertainties of Tunisia’s post-Arab Spring transition and doubts over the concept of export-driven projects in North Africa following the implosion of the Desertec Industrial Initiative last October. It now hopes the establishment of a fully constitutional government will clear away the final hurdles.

Central Bank of Nigeria governor Lamido Sanusi’s crackdown on five prominent banks over alleged abuses, including ramping up share prices and building non-performing loans on transactions involving ‘big men’ cronies, has brought a much-need reality check to the sector.