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The authorities in charge of Libya’s oil and gas sector are contemplating a radical shift to private financing of major upstream and downstream developments to get around budget constraints which are putting many essential projects out of reach. Under the former regime of late leader Muammar Qadhafi, the idea of using domestic or international finance to back National Oil Corporation (NOC) projects was unthinkable. Even now, the idea may be opposed by newly formed trade unions or armed groups representing local interests who continue to promote themselves under the banner of ‘revolutionary’ forces. However, a well-attended two-day seminar on sources and methods of financing and prospects for investment in the oil and gas sector, held by NOC in Tripoli on 14-15 May, showed the corporation was serious about bringing in outside money.

New group managing director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Andrew Laah Yakubu was the choice of his sacked predecessor Austen Oniwon. Oniwon is close to petroleum minister Diezani Alison-Madueke, and appears to have been sacrificed to take the heat off Madueke and other senior officials who might otherwise carry the can for the fuel subsidy scandal.

Denmark’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has begun prequalification of consultants for an appraisal of the third phase of the Danish International Development Agency-funded Danish Energy Partnership Programme, which covers China, Mexico, South Africa and Vietnam. The programme will run from July 2020 to June 2025 with a total budget of up to DKK250m ($37m). It aims to support the countries in developing policies for achieving their national determined contribution to the Paris Agreement on climate change.

CI-Energies on 20 March awarded seven contracts to electrify 350 locations in Côte d’Ivoire. The contracts are being financed by the French Development Agency. Morocco’s Fabrilec, part of MMK group, and Ivorian consultancy SNE were awarded the $4.67m Lot 1 contract to electrify 42 localities in Gbêkê region as well as the $8.03m Lot 3 contract to connect 37 locations in Iffou region, 14 in Mé, four in Abidjan and one in Sud-Comoé.

Tullow Oil has announced that the Tweneboa-3 appraisal well in the Deepwater Tano licence encountered gas condensate in high-quality sandstone reservoirs, confirming the Greater Tweneboa Area resource base potential.

Zesa Holdings has reached a deal worth $8m with Botswana Power Company to refurbish the Bulawayo power plant in exchange for electricity exports (AE 173/10). “The deal will see us reviving Bulawayo thermal power station and enabling us to generate 90MW and of this 40MW will be exported to Botswana as per agreement,”

The African Development Bank (AfDB) is to provide a grant of $990,000 to the government to support the development of renewable energy. The grant will finance three studies under an energy sector support programme aimed at promoting private sector investment in renewable energy to reduce excessive reliance on costly imported power while expanding access to electricity and ensuring reliable power supply.

Victoria Oil & Gas (VOG) says it has hit around 27 metres of gross sandstone pay at a depth of 1,839 metres during the drilling of the La-105 well at its Logbaba gas and condensate project in Douala.

Ukrainian hydro engineering company Ukrhydroproject has completed studies showing the potential for a system of 14 hydropower plants with a combined installed capacity of 720MW on the River Wele. The hydro plants would be constructed in two stages alongside a 110kV transmission system linking them to the major load centres, according to the company. The cascade could generate up to 5TWh per year, it said.

Sudan still has hopes of exploiting its gas reserves, put at 3tcf, but with demand for electricity and industrial feedstock rising, President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir on 30 November said the government planned a pipeline from Port Sudan to Khartoum to facilitate gas imports. Reports suggested that Sudan’s increasingly friendly ties with Qatar could open the way for liquefied natural gas imports, which were discussed during a November visit to Doha by defence minister Abdelrahim Mohammed Hussein. After a meeting with Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, Hussein told reporters he had signed an “agreement to export gas from Qatar to Sudan for electricity production”, starting at the beginning of 2015.

Simba Energy says production-sharing contracts (PSCs) for its three blocks have been approved by the government, but National Assembly approval is still needed before operations can begin.

The National Oil, Gas and Biofuels Agency (ANPG) has announced the start-up of the Nsinga oilfield on Block 0, offshore Cabinda province. The field, operated by Chevron’s Cabinda Gulf Oil Company Limited, is the first oil field in the Block 0 concession to start production following the approval of Presidential Legislative Decree No 6/18,of May 2018, which governs incentives for the development of marginal fields, ANPG said.

The National Assembly has ratified production-sharing contracts (PSCs) awarding six blocks to four companies. Blocks A, B and C, have been awarded to Discover Exploration and Bahari Resources, while blocks D, E and F have been licensed to the US’ Western Energy Production and Jersey-registered Safari Petroleum. Discover and Bahari signed a PSC in March 2013 following the ratification by the Indian Ocean islands’ parliament in December 2012 of a new Petroleum Code aimed at bringing the country’s legislation in line with international standards.

The government has published its long-awaited hydrocarbons law N° 15/012, setting out a simpler legal framework for the upstream oil and gas sector. No new licences have been awarded since 2010 while the new law was being drafted, and the process has been held up by disagreement between the national assembly and the senate. Under the new law, published on 1 August, exploration contracts are to be awarded through a tender process on the basis of technical and financial criteria established by the cabinet.

The dynamics of the power struggle in Libya are changing fast, with the arrival of Donald Trump in the White House in January expected to give extra credibility to the resurgent Libyan National Army (LNA) led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, and to further undermine the already failing Government of National Accord (GNA). However, converting Haftar’s precarious Cyrenaican tribal alliance, which also includes influential elements from the former regime and Salafists, into a national movement capable of extending its rule over Fezzan and Tripolitania presents vast challenges.