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The Angolan regime is celebrating a period of political change with constitutional amendments and personnel changes that are intended to allow the economy to grow while maintaining power in the hands of the small elite gathered around President José Eduardo dos Santos.

Société Nationale d’Electricité (Snel) has given ABB an order worth $107m to upgrade the 1,700km Inga-Kolwezi power transmission link, one of the world’s longest electricity transmission systems. ABB will refurbish the stations that convert alternating current to direct current and back on the 560MW link it built in 1982. The link uses high-voltage direct current technology to transmit power from the Inga Falls hydropower station on the Congo River to the mining district of Katanga and enables excess power to be exported to the Southern African Power Pool.

For a short period on 22-24 February, Durban’s International Convention Centre became the focal point for the policy divides that are becoming ever more public as South Africa settles uneasily into Jacob Zuma’s presidency.

Lundin affiliate Africa Oil Corporation has further expanded its Kenyan holdings by signing an agreement with Platform Resources, a wholly owned subsidiary of Alberta Oilsands, to take over Platform’s 100% interest in blocks 12A and 13T.

Sasol Petroleum International is expanding gas production from Mozambique, where the central processing facility produces 300mcf/d from the Pande and Temane fields, and a $500m expansion is under way

Long dismissed as a minor oil producer lacking access to the Gulf of Guinea’s prolific deep waters, Cameroon has high hopes of harnessing its gas for domestic use and export to boost its moribund economy, writes Thalia Griffiths, recently in Yaoundé

Energy officials have warned of power cuts following a breakdown at the 150MW Azito thermal plant. Ministry of Mines and Energy director general of energy Simon Eddy, told business representatives Azito had been out of action since 22 December and was unlikely to be fixed before late April or early May.

The NDC government is unhappy with the original contracts signed by the Jubilee partners, especially the Kosmos deal. Analysts say they lacked rigour, although this rather reflected the prevailing situation: Kosmos and a few other IOCs took acreage in highly speculative deals, in a frontier with a poor track record for exploration and production.

When, in December 2008, power was transferred from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to the rival National Democratic Congress (NDC) in a hotly contested election that came down to a few hundred votes, Ghana showed a political maturity that bodes well for the future.

The acrimony that has accompanied the emergence of Ghana as a significant offshore oil producer is becoming ever more apparent, with two companies threatened with litigation or the cancellation of a petroleum agreement (PA) already ratified by parliament.

Total was forced to declare force majeure on shipments of Girassol crude from Block 14 after swordfish punctured an oil loading pipe.

The attack on a bus carrying the Togolese football team as it entered Angola’s oil-rich Cabinda enclave from Republic of Congo shocked the Luanda government, and the international community, on the eve of the Africa Cup of Nations (Cocan2010) tournament’s kick-off in Luanda.

World leaders failed to secure a binding global treaty on reducing carbon emissions at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen – not least due to opposition from a radical group including Venezuela and Sudan, as well as differences between global giants led by the United States and China. Leaders did secure a deal to limit

In a move that underlines national oil companies’ increasing willingness to push for expansion by investing abroad, Sonangol was a surprise victor in Iraq’s second post-war licensing round, winning the Najmah and Qayyarah fields, which are located around 70km south of Mosul, the most violent city in Iraq. The Angolan state company was the sole bidder for the two fields and initially offered remuneration fees of $12.50 for Qayyarah and $8.50 for Najmah but after the Ministry of Oil rejected the offers, it reduced them to $5 and $6 respectively.

The excitement over West Africa’s Transform Margin reflects the play’s potential to deliver oil finds in countries that have hitherto been of marginal interest at best (AE 174/1).