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South Africa and the wider Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) region were plunged into chronic power cuts this winter because ultimately the numbers didn’t add up: with reserve margins (the gap between useable installed capacity and demand) withering to dangerously low levels, rains in January further reduced the percentage of the 36,000MW generation capacity that Eskom could put into its grid. South Africa just didn’t have enough electricity – a grim reality that Eskom has been blaming the SA government for (because a decade ago it sought to break up its monopoly, unsuccessfully), and for which President Thabo Mbeki’s administration has made an unprecedented apology.

Despite all the hype, the Nigeria/ São Tomé e Príncipe Joint Development Zone (JDZ) has achieved nothing – for the international oil companies who poured into this ‘new Gulf of Guinea Eldorado’ in mid-decade, nor for the people of the islands. There are hopes that the 14 February appointment of Patrice Trovoada as prime minister will inject new energy into STP’s once promising but now dormant oil sector.

The European Investment Bank is appraising a $75m loan for the second phase of MagIndustries’ Kouilou project, involving the development of a potash solution mining field and the construction of a potash processing plant (AE 124/2).

President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua promised he would sort out the Niger Delta in his first 100 days in office, but observers say the political will to follow up words with deeds is lacking, and influential Nigerians are still making a lot of money out of the crisis. It was a well-meaning gesture to put Vice President

Among the larger Saudi-controlled companies active in the African resources boom is Stockholm-based Svenska Petroleum, which belongs to Saudi/Ethiopian magnate Mohammed Hussein Al-Amoudi – one of that group of Saudi businessmen born into non-Saudi or marginal communities who have emerged as very significant players, usually by being linked to senior Saudi princes as ‘men of business’ during part, at least, of their careers.

Stratic Energy Corporation has agreed to sell its 100% stake in the offshore Kerkouane permit for $1m in cash to Australia’s AuDAX Resources.

Malawi has become the latest country to cut off diplomatic ties with Taiwan in favour of the People’s Republic of China

There was another chilly dose of reality from the tropics for the growing number of donors and policy-makers looking to Democratic Republic of Congo’s extravagant endowment of natural resources, including hydropower capacity, to help southern/central Africa to overcome its now chronic power shortages, when in mid-January former militia leader Eugène Serufuli was appointed chairman of Société Nationale d’Electricité (Snel)’s managing board. This controversial decision had little to do with rehabilitating gensets or getting more of Kinshasa, not to mention the rest of this sprawling country, electrified. It said much for the balance of forces in DRC, as President Joseph Kabila consolidates power, one year on from his election victory.

Keen to avoid the resource curse that has affected other countries in the Gulf of Guinea, the government of Ghana is consulting widely on how best to develop its nascent oil industry. Peaceful, democratic, with relevant experience from its mining industry and a sophisticated civil society, Ghana should be able to provide a model of best practice for its neighbours.

As they hurtle round the earth 16 times a day at a height of 220 miles, the astronauts of the International Space Station are, among other tasks, photographing vast, previously unknown, and very large scale geological formations capable of assisting oil geologists in their understanding of continental sedimentary basins.

Lundin Oil chairman Adolf Lundin has said he would welcome a formal inquiry by the Swedish government into his company’s operations in Sudan following a critical new report by Christian Aid reviving the controversy over the role of foreign oil companies in funding the government’s war against southern rebels.

Saudi Arabia Newsletter: It is perhaps too soon to know whether King Hussein's recent visit to SaudiArabia did anything to alter the kingdom's traditional full support for Yasser Arafat's leadership of the PLO.