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The US Senate has passed a new bill on resource transparency that will require oil, gas and mining companies registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to publicly disclose their tax and revenue payments to governments around the world.

The World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) has approved a loan of $178.5m, alongside a grant of $24.5m from its Scaling-up Renewable Energy Program Trust Fund, to boost development of geothermal resources. The bank said the funding would be administered in two phases, with the first intended to confirm geothermal resources and boost capacity development, and the second aimed at developing the resource for power generation. The project is targeting two geothermal sites, Aluto and Alalobad. At Aluto, four IDA-financed wells will be drilled alongside 22 further wells of between 2,000 and 2,500 metres depth. At Alalobad, four IDA-financed wells will be drilled to explore the site and identify resource potential.

Heritage Oil has published details of a $370m rights issue to part-finance its acquisition of a stake in Nigeria’s OML 30 (AE 235/18). The rights issue could see chief executive Tony Buckingham reducing his 33% stake in the company, as maintaining his stake at that level would cost him some $122m.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Energy will release tender documents in April for consultants to assist with a green mini-grid programme. The work is being funded by a grant from the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (Sefa) and comprises two components. The first is to develop an enabling environment and build capacity for mini-grids. This will support new institutional arrangements, market stimulation initiatives for private operators to supply affordable power, the categorisation of mini-grid projects, permiting and concession arrangements, technical standards, tariff models, and the relationship with the grid.

Nigeria’s Oranto Petroleum has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Petroleum for the Dibella and Dallol blocks R5 and R6 in the Tenere and Agadem basins. The agreement was signed in September by Oranto chairman Prince Arthur Eze and petroleum minister Foumakoye Gado, but only announced on 30 October. The MoU enables Oranto to receive technical data on the blocks for review.

Tullow Oil has warned of lower-than-forecast Ghana production and disappointing crude quality in Guyana. A trading update on 13 November said full-year production from Ghana’s Jubilee field would be around 89,000 b/d, down from 96,000 b/d forecast in the H1 results in July, due to new problems with the FPSO vessel. Tullow cited “topside issues which have constrained water injection and gas handling”, saying water injection would be restored to full capacity by the end of November, while enhancements to the gas handling system were planned for early 2020.

A two-day meeting of East African power organisations concluded on 26 June in Kigali, with the regional bodies agreeing to closer collaboration to integrate their power systems. The main aim of the meeting was for the power organisations to agree on co-ordination arrangements and frameworks to avoid duplication and overlaps, and to develop a way forward to accelerate completion and commissioning of ongoing projects. The organisations represented were the Nile Equatorial Lakes Subsidiary Action Programme, Energie des Grands Lacs, the Eastern Africa Power Pool and the East African Community.

SDX Energy has completed the acquisition of Circle Oil’s assets in Morocco and Egypt for $30m (AE 338/12). SDX has acquired the producing Sebou permit and the Lalla Mimouna permit in Morocco, and the Al Amir and Geyad permits in Egypt’s Gulf of Suez. The acquisition was funded by a share placing on London’s AIM market that raised $40m on 24 January.

Energy and mines minister Youcef Yousfi led a high-level delegation of officials to London on 15 April, including senior executives from Sonatrach, Sonelgaz and regulator Agence Nationale pour la Valorisation des Ressources en Hydrocarbures (Alnaft). Yousfi’s visit was arranged as part of a UK government initiative to improve economic ties with Algeria. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has named the minister as his economic representative to the UK in response to Prime Minister David Cameron’s appointment of Lord Risby as the UK’s trade envoy to Algeria. Cameron has named envoys for each of the North African states.

AFRICAN BANKING CORPORATION: AfDB credit; SONELGAZ: Algerian parastatal finance debate rolls on

Kenya and Uganda were hit by nationwide power cuts early on 9 May, less than a month after Uganda suffered a nationwide blackout caused by debris blocking intakes at Nalubaale hydropower station. Kenya Power said engineers had identified a technical fault at a section of the main high- voltage transmission power line that evacuates power to Nairobi from the Olkaria geothermal complex.An electricity conductor came off its support insulators and crashed onto a tower near Kiambu town.

A feasibility study has begun into the potential for cooperatives as a business model in electricity provision in Ethiopia and Nigeria. The African Development Bank (AfDB)-managed South-South Cooperation Trust Fund is funding the study, which is being carried out by the United States’ industry association, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association International (NRECA International). It is scheduled to be completed in May this year and will inform plans to pilot the model in the two countries.

The regional Organisation pour la Mise en Valeur du Fleuve Senegal (OMVS) is seeking expressions of interest by 11 August for technical assistance to build the 59MW Felou hydropower project on the Senegal River (AE 136/10).

Zambia Electricity Supply Company (Zesco) has opened talks with international financial institutions including the World Bank, the African Development Bank and export credit agencies to raise an initial $600m to build and upgrade hydropower plants, including the 750MW Kafue Gorge Lower project.

There has been an upsurge of interest in Morocco’s underexplored acreage, with Vancouver-based East West Petroleum Corporation the latest company to sign an agreement with the Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines (Onhym).