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Libya will allow UK-based supermajor BP to go ahead with its planned deep-water offshore drilling which it plans to begin this July, despite questions which have been raised about the safety of the technology

Oilmoz Holding, owned by former foreign minister and current executive director of the Joaquim Chissano Foundation, Leonardo Simão, plans to start construction next year on a 350,000 b/d oil refinery (AE 136/22). The refinery is to be built at Matutuine in the south of Mozambique, at an estimated cost of $8.4bn.

A group of investors and lenders is creating a $400m fund to invest more flexibly in power plants in Africa. Speaking at the Africa Energy Forum in Lisbon on 13 June, Lion’s Head Global Partners co-chief executive Clemens Calice said the equity portion of the first close of about $120m for the Facility for Energy Inclusion (FEI) on-grid fund was completed and that it was now in the process of bringing in loan finance.

Italy’s Saipem has said it could lose up to €500m ($653m) in payments due from Algeria because of an investigation into allegations that it paid bribes to win contracts. Chief executive Umberto Vergine said on 23 April, “we are having some difficulties to get recent payments and the worst-case scenario is we won’t get these payments.” Saipem said it had been informed that an Algerian court had extended its investigation, but added it had no details on the state of the case or the people involved.

InfraCo Africa, part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), announced on 20 July that it had signed an agreement with Joule Africa to invest $6m in the 143MW Bumbuna II hydropower project. The funding is part of a package designed to push the project to financial close. InfraCo said construction was expected to begin next year.Joule Africa has been developing Bumbuna II since 2011.

Victoria Oil & Gas (VOG) plans to bring the first of its two new wells on production by the end of September, and is planning to explore for more gas in a much larger area of the Douala Basin acquired from Glencore and Bowleven.VOG produced 14.6mcf/d in Q2, which was sold in Douala within a price range of $9-$16/mBtu. Chairman Kevin Foo told the Oil Capital conference in London on 5 September the company was targeting production of 100mcf/d by 2021, compared to Douala region gas demand of more than 150mcf/d.

The Ministry of Energy has granted Tap Oil a 12-month extension of the initial exploration period under the petroleum agreement for the Offshore Accra contract area, allowing extra time to drill a well.

Operator Perenco has announced that the Sputnik-1 well, targeting a pre-salt structure in the offshore Arouwe Block, has encountered non-commercial hydrocarbon pay in up to 300 metres of net sandstone reservoir. The Vantage Tungsten Explorer drillship drilled Sputnik-1 to a final depth of 4,868 metres in water depths of 1,023 metres. The rig will now leave the block, and the results of this well will be incorporated into wider understanding of the region, Perenco said.

Tideland Signal has supplied a solar-powered rotating beacon kit to the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority to automate the historic lighthouse at Jamestown, Accra.

Siemens has successfully switched on the first two substations that will transmit electricity generated by new power plants in Beni Suef and Burullus to the grid. When finished, the plants will feature a total of six 500/220kV substations, helping to improve reliability of domestic power supply. The Etay El-Baroud and Maghagha substations are part of the contract signed by a consortium of Siemens and local engineering company El Sewedy Electric T&D with the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company for the design, engineering, supply and installation of six substations in El Minia, El Beheira, Qalubia, Assiut and Kafr El Zayat governorates.

Total started up production on 29 December from the Egina field on OML 130. At plateau, the Egina field will produce 200,000 b/d of oil, which represents about 10% of Nigeria’s current production, posing a potential challenge for the production cuts agreed by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in December. Under the 1.2m bbl agreement, Nigeria is expected to keep oil production, excluding other liquids, at 1.738m b/d.

Investment advisory GreenMax Capital Advisors and merchant bank Broad Street Capital Group are pioneering a new approach to financing portfolios of off-grid projects called the GreenStreet Africa Energy Infrastructure Financing Programme. The initiative aims to allow public institutions access to low-interest financing while encouraging African governments to take on some of the risks in the sector.

US strategic consultancy Détente Group has signed agreements with the Ethiopian government to manage development of the country’s wind energy potential with support from President Barack Obama’s Power Africa Initiative. Détente managing partner Brien Morgan told African Energy that, based on the support received from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (US Ex-Im Bank), the Department of Commerce’s Export Assistance Center, and a 25 September meeting between Obama and Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the government of Ethiopia has pledged to source the entire programme from the US renewable energy industry.

President Ali Bongo Ondimba has been energetically promoting his country’s investment profile across the world, and Gabon in the 1990s took a continental lead in promoting the concessioning of public services, but the going can be tough for some investors and concession contracts in particular are coming under pressure. According to a Gabon analyst, “utility companies are operating in a particularly fraught environment”.

With the threat of another pipeline shutdown averted, South Sudan’s oil production is expected to increase from about 180,000 b/d to 200,000 b/d in the coming weeks, and to at least 250,000 b/d by year-end, according to oil industry sources in Juba. During a one-day summit in Khartoum on 3 September with South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir, Sudanese leader Omar Hassan Al-Bashir agreed to reverse his decision, announced on 9 June, to stop receiving, processing and transporting crude from South Sudan within 60 days. Under pressure from oil companies and foreign governments, Bashir had already twice delayed the anticipated shutdown, originally scheduled for 7 August, to 22 August and then to 6 September.