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Following the 14 April arrest in Florida of a former BSG Resources (BSGR) associate, Frédéric Cilins, the Guinean authorities have detained Ibrahima Sory Touré, a senior manager in the company’s local unit. Cilins, who was involved in setting up the BSGR office in Guinea in the mid-2000s was charged with obstructing a criminal investigation, tampering with a witness and destruction of records.

African Petroleum has raised $3.1m in a private placement on the Oslo Axess junior market.The placement raised NOK26,675,000 in gross proceeds through the allocation of 10,670,000 shares at a subscription price of NOK2.50/share.African Petroleum chief executive Jens Pace said the proceeds would be used to strengthen the company’s balance sheet and liquidity position while it works towards completing farm-out transactions:“The proceeds will also help us prepare for the exciting and approaching spudding of the exploration well with Ophir Energy in Q2 2017 on the CI-513 Block in Côte d’Ivoire.

New Eskom interim CEO Brian Molefe has said that his short and medium term aims were to end load shedding and ensure efficiency and security of coal power supply, but that “in the medium to long term [our priority is] to increase alternative sources of energy, to systematically reduce our reliance on coal over a period of time”. His statement, taken with energy minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson’s announcement of “expanded and accelerated” independent power producer (IPP) procurement programmes, is widely viewed as signalling government recognition that Eskom will not provide new generation capacity within a timeframe or at a cost that can be justified in light of the success of the renewable energy IPP procurement (REIPPP) programme.

The Kenya Investment Authority (KenInvest) and Meru County government signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on 29 August with Australia’s Windlab and Japan’s Eurus Energy for the development of an 80MW hybrid wind, solar PV and battery power plant. The agreement was signed at the 7th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (Ticad). Windlab has been working with Meru County for some time, signing a joint development agreement in 2016 for 166MW of renewable power in phases.

IOCs are keen to book reserves so more export LNG capacity can be built, but Egypt and other governments are increasingly concerned to add value by using gas at home.

The jihadist organisations that have prospered in the ruins of the Libyan state since the overthrow of the dictator Colonel Muammar Qadhafi have started to fight among themselves, adding another level of complexity to an already fragmented political scene. A related North Africa-wide effort to unite more established Al-Qaeda elements against the insurgent Islamic State (IS) is being led by the notorious one-eyed Sahelian terrorist, kidnapper and smuggler, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who almost certainly escaped death despite being the target of a US Air Force raid on a farm outside Ajdabiya on 13 June.

Société Nationale d’Electricité du Burkina (Sonabel) invites bids by 4 April for the 50MW expansion of the Kossodo thermal plant, located outside Ouagadougou. The utility seeks contractors to design, equip, install, test and commission an additional plant of 50MW comprising at least three diesel units firing on heavy fuel oil, with the option of converting to combined-cycle operation with a steam turbine of 3-5MW.

Mineral Resources minister Gwede Mantashe published a notice on 28 June suspending the granting of new oil and gas licences until a new invitation for applications is announced. “This restriction shall not affect the processing of applications for reconnaissance permits, technical cooperation permits, exploration and production rights received before the date of publication,” the notice said.

The Ministry of Energy, Mines and Renewable Energy is seeking prequalification bids from developers for five solar photovoltaic (PV) projects totalling 500MW. The plants will be developed on a build-own-operate concession basis. According to the prequalification notice published on 11 May, the five projects are: Project A of about 50MWp in Tozeur governorate; Project B of about 50MWp in Sidi Bouzid; Project C of about 100MWp in Kairouan; Project D of about 100MWp in Gafsa; Project E of about 200MWp at Borj Bourguiba in Tataouine governorate.

President Paul Biya has not survived in power for over 37 years by showing great sensitivity to local or international criticism, let alone by accommodating outright opposition. Like other leaders and sympathetic opinion-formers across Central Africa and beyond, he has rationalised authoritarian tendencies and crony relations by insisting on his regime’s essential role in ensuring stability. While governance shortfalls may define the daily lives of Cameroon’s multi-ethnic population, a nation created first by German colonisation and then by division between the British and French empires has traditionally avoided identity-based conflict.

Another order to supply Moroccan wind park; GE energy - New Algerian agreement; ONE - Kenitra power plant tender; Technopromexport - African power JV with Libyans

Benedict Oramah has been appointed to replace Jean-Louis Ekra as head of the Cairo-based export credit agency African Export-Import Bank. Oramah, a Nigerian national, joined the bank as an analyst in 1994. Presently executive vice-president in charge of business development and corporate banking, he will take over the leadership in September as the institution’s third president since it was founded in 1994.

Tunisia’s Steg International Services has selected Portugal’s Efacec to build three new 200kV substations to distribute power to rural areas from the HQ Power peat plant. Efacec will carry out the engineering, supply, supervision and commissioning of three new substations on a turnkey basis. The contract is worth €10.5m ($11.5m) and work must be completed within 18 months.The 80MW HQ plant in Gisagara District is being developed by Turkey’s Hakan Mining and Electricity Generation Industry and Trade and Quantum Power.

China International Water & Electric Corporation (CWE) announced on 2 February the signing of an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources and Ministry of Finance for the 450MW Souapiti dam and hydropower plant on the Konkoure River. The $1.38bn contract is expected to be completed in 58 months and will involve the construction of a roller-compacted concrete dam with a maximum height of 116.5 metres and length of 1,148 metres, as well as a power plant with a design installed capacity of 450MW and average annual output of 1.9TWh.

Tullow Oil has farmed into Pancontinental’s EL 0037 in the Walvis Basin, taking 65%. The block is immediately north of HRT’s licence, where the Wingat well was drilled earlier this year (AE 255/12). Wingat was non-commercial, but samples of light oil were recovered. Industry sources said the well had proved that the oil system in the Walvis Basin was working, but had tested the wrong reservoir interval. HRT said Wingat had identified two well-developed source rocks, both within the oil-generating window, and collected four samples from thin-bedded sandy reservoirs saturated by oil.