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Recently appointed finance minister Mohammed Benchaâboun is tackling Morocco’s burgeoning budget deficit with reforms that some local observers are calling Thatcherite. The former banker expects to raise funds by divesting the state’s remaining saleable assets, with major privatisations for the first time in a decade.

APR Energy faces a significant challenge in removing its temporary power generation equipment from Libya. The company has ten 25MW gas turbine units located at Al-Furnaj in south-eastern Tripoli, Zlitan and Al-Khums on the coast, and Samnu, north-east of Sabha. It also has a further 200MW of diesel generation units installed in Tripoli and at Um Al-Jadwal, south of Sabha. Most of the territory in which the units are installed is under the control of groups allied to the unrecognised Tripoli-based government.

PA Resources and EnQuest have dropped farm-out plans for the Didon field and Zarat permit after the government failed to give its approval. The news comes as PA Resources plans a shareholder meeting on 27 February to decide whether it should go into liquidation. In May 2013, the companies signed agreements for the transfer of 70% in the Didon producing oilfield and the Zarat permit to EnQuest. In July 2014, PA and EnQuest completed the Didon transaction and put the sale proceeds in escrow awaiting a letter of non-objection from the Tunisian authorities.

Despite restarting production on 21 October after securing bank letters of credit to purchase a 600,000 barrel crude consignment from Nigeria, the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) continues to operate at well below its 45,000b/d capacity. The refinery has been closed three times since reopening in April 2013, following an eight-month shutdown from mid-2012. TOR public affairs manager Aba Lokko told African Energy the refinery would continue to operate at 28,000 b/d until it received $37.7m from the government, the second tranche of a promised $67.7m finance package to rehabilitate the facility and boost capacity.

BARAKA PETROLEUM: Recapitalisation and restructuring; VAALCO: Gabon well plugged, other drilling continues

As the East African hydrocarbons race heats up, Tanzania has found bidders for four onshore blocks, but in opening up a new oil province they will have to consider the needs of local communities and the country’s vital tourist industry, writes Thalia Griffiths.

Well before President Abdelaziz Bouteflika emerged predictably triumphant from his campaign to win a fourth term of office, in which the zaïm (charismatic leader) himself player virtually no part, the talk among the Algerian political elite and many of their business partners was of ‘transition’. The enfeebled president was hardly able to function following his stroke last year, underlined by his halting performance taking the oath of office on 28 April; but there was consensus within the ruling elite that the Bouteflika IV administration would herald a period of transition, modernising the apparatus of state and functioning of the economy.

Tullow Oil has been appraising the Kasamene field on Uganda’s Block 2 ahead of first oil planned in Q4 2011. Tullow exploration manager Robin Sutherland told Global Pacific & Partners’ African Petroleum Forum in London on 13 April that, despite the logistical problems, Tullow was keen to bring a rig in to drill in Lake Albert, and would bring in the parts to build an offshore

A new fuel storage terminal at Tangier port is set to open in September as a significant element of the $1.6bn scheme to make the previously down-at-heel northern Moroccan port a major regional transport hub

Off-grid solar company BBOXX and General Electric (GE) announced the launch of a partnership in the Democratic Republic of Congo on 25 September. BBOXX expanded into the country earlier this year, forming a partnership with Victron Energy to supply larger solar systems to businesses in Goma as well as trialling mini-grids. In June, BBOXX signed an agreement with the government to roll out 300,000-400,000 solar systems over five years.

Engineering services company Penspen has won a contract from Petrozim Line to provide engineering, procurement services, construction and commissioning supervision for the latest phase of capacity expansion of the Feruka-Harare multiproduct pipeline. Penspen, which installed the original pipeline and has carried out a study for the expansion project over the last six years, will provide its services at three separate sites, Feruka, Wilton and Harare.

Ophir Energy plans to drill a deep-water well in the shared zone between Senegal and Guinea Bissau and has secured a rig from AP Moller-Maersk.

Oil minister Foumakoye Gado has defended the cost of fuel as one of the lowest in the region, following renewed pressure from transport unions and civil society groups for a price cut.Campaigners argue that fuel should be cheaper as Niger produces its own oil. However, in a series of mid-February interviews on local radio and television, Gado said refining costs also had to be taken into account.

Morocco’s state power company is increasingly active in Africa and plans to open an international arm in London, to be closer to international financial markets and the developer community, and to create much-needed new revenue flows, its chief executive told Jon Marks in Casablanca

Rwanda, hopeful of discovering hydrocarbons reserves to underpin its rapid economic growth, is gearing up to persuade international companies that it can be a serious exploration opportunity by offering a more robust legislative framework and other incentives. An Upstream Petroleum Bill has been tabled in parliament and will be debated soon, based on the Upstream Policy approved by cabinet in July 2013. “As soon as the law is passed we will divide the country into blocks and look for prospective areas to present to companies,” minister of state for mining Evode Imena told the East African Petroleum Conference in Kigali on 4 March.