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Kenya Electricity Generation Company (KenGen) is inviting bids for the design, supply and installation of a silicon-based solar PV panel production plant at the company’s Tana power station in Murang’a, central Kenya.

Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SNH) has given New Age (African Global Energy) Ltd formal approval to apply for a new exploitation agreement for the Etinde licence. This would replace the existing Etinde exploitation agreement (EEA) which came into force by presidential decree in January 2015 and had been due to expire. Partner Bowleven said the new agreement, reached following talks with SNH, “would be for the production of hydrocarbons including the delivery of gas to thermal power plants or any other projects confirmed by the state”.

Following several block awards announced in early January, minister of petroleum and mineral resources Tarek El-Molla has signed a concession agreement with Royal Dutch Shell, Mubadala Petroleum and Tharwa Petroleum for Red Sea Block 4. The 3,084km2 block in the northern Red Sea owned by the South Valley Egyptian Petroleum Holding Company (Ganope) was offered in a licensing round in 2019.

London-listed Energean announced on 21 January that it had taken a final investment decision on the North El Amriya and North Idku (NEA/NI) concession subsea tieback project offshore Egypt. The NEA concession contains two discovered and appraised gas fields, Yazzi and Python, while the NI concession contains four discovered gas fields, one of which is ready for development. NEA/NI is due to deliver first gas in H2 2022 from 49m boe of 2P reserves, 87% of which is gas. Peak production is expected to be approximately 90mcf/d, plus 1,000 b/d of condensates.

China’s decision to participate in the World Bank-led Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) was a rare indication that Beijing was willing to join an international initiative to tackle rising financial pressures on developing economies. Its concerns about its African and other liabilities means Chinese lending “fell off a cliff in 2020”, an AIX panelist observed on 19 January, but Beijing’s commitment remains huge: the African Energy Live Data platform records some $38bn-worth of Chinese investment committed to African power projects in 2014-19.

South Africa’s TBI Investment Managers has completed its first renewable energy deal with a R440m ($29m) refinancing of Emvelo’s 15% equity stake in the 100MW Karoshoek Solar One  concentrated solar power project, which came online in 2018. The deal was done through TBI’s Amandla Renewable Energy Fund, which was set up in 2019 to focus on refinancing equity stakes in South Africa’s renewable energy IPP procurement programme (REIPPP), TBI head of renewable energy Laurentius Human told African Energy.

Chevron subsidiary Cabinda Gulf Oil Company Limited has given Subsea 7 a contract for the Sanha Lean Gas Connection project in Block 0. The work comprises the construction and installation of a lean gas platform system at a water depth of approximately 70 metres. The lean gas platform is planned as a fixed-leg structure bridge-connected to the existing Sanha condensate complex. Gas from the Sanha field, which started condensate production in 2005, will be supplied to the Angola LNG plant at Soyo.

Australian junior miner AVZ Minerals on 21 January said its $500m-plus green lithium mine project at Manono would be fully supplied by the Piana Mwanga hydroelectric plant – once it has been refurbished – and would aim to achieve a number of other sustainability goals. Analysts said AVZ’s investor call, which focused on sustainability issues following a greenhouse gas assessment at the Manono lithium and tin project by Environmental Resource Management, produced an uptick in its share price as it focused on the project “as potentially having one of the lowest carbon footprints of any lithium mine across the globe”.

The most abundant element on earth, hydrogen, already has industrial uses, but it could do much more to transform the global energy mix as industrialised economies and the global south decarbonise. Judged by the welter of governmental and corporate statements, hydrogen is featuring large in the thoughts of planners and project promoters. These range from Chinese hydrocarbons giant Sinopec’s plans to reallocate some of its Rmb87bn ($13bn) cash pile to projects “all along the hydrogen chain” to Australian junior miner AVZ Minerals’ green lithium mine project at Manono in Democratic Republic of Congo.

Joe Biden’s presidency offers the prospect of the world’s largest economy re-engaging with the international order, with a raft of policies that include giving new impetus to climate change action, a more stringent attitude to autocratic rule and coordinating actions that stimulate economies in coronavirus distress. Even before Covid-19 emerged a year ago, concern had been building over rising sovereign debt across Africa, some of it ‘hidden’ and unmanageable; this may now be an acute problem as emerging market and developing country (EMDC) governments signal varying degrees of distress.

Project company Kipeto Energy Plc (KEP) announced on 25 January that it had connected the Kipeto wind farm in Kajiado County to the national grid and the project would start generating power in the next week. KEP has connected a 17km, 220kV high-voltage transmission line linking the facility to the national grid at the Isinya substation. The project’s 60 GE 1.7-103 wind turbines, each capable of producing 1.7MW, will be switched on in stages as part of a ramp-up process, with all commercial tests due to be concluded within the next few months.

Prime Minister Moctar Ouane formally inaugurated the Kourouba dam in the Koulikoro region of south-western Mali on 15 January.

Cairn Energy has taken over operatorship of onshore blocks CI-301 and CI-302 following the withdrawal of Tullow Oil. The Cairn-Tullow joint venture has pulled out of blocks CI-518, CI-519, CI-521 and CI-522 with effect from end-December 2020, while Tullow remains as operator of CI-520, in the area east of Abidjan around Grand-Bassam, with Cairn as a partner. Cairn said the 2021 work programme for blocks CI-301 and CI-302 was focused on completing a planned 2D seismic acquisition programme, once it is safe to do so.

Operator BW Energy has signed an agreement with National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor), raising its stake in the Kudu licence to 95% from 56%. Having failed to attract a farm-in partner, the Norwegian company wrote down the full value of the project in Q1 2020, saying the move reflected lower pricing and a delay to the expected development timing. BW Energy said the new arrangement would enable gas sales agreements and increased the likelihood of securing financing for the upstream.

Policymakers agree more action is needed to counter debt distress and unlock funds for the energy transition, but there are few signs that a more effective financial architecture will emerge any time soon. Meanwhile concerns over rising sovereign debt are feeding into hesitancy over new lending, writes Jon Marks.