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The Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) on 29 October agreed a $22.5m line of credit (LoC) to finance power grid expansion in the greater Banjul area. Exim Bank now has five LoCs in place for Gambia, but this is the first for the power sector. Exim Bank will reimburse the entire cost of contracts awarded to Indian exporters.

Ormat Technologies has completed plant 3 in the Olkaria III geothermal power plant complex, bringing total generation capacity to 110MW. The power generated by the Olkaria III complex in the Hells Gate national park near Naivasha is sold under a 20-year power purchase agreement with Kenya Power. The new capacity will enable Kenya to decommission its remaining 30MW of costly rental power. Olkaria III was financed with a $310m debt facility from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.

The recent increase in oil prices will be especially welcomed by Central Africa’s small but dominant ruling elites. The stand-off over Gabon’s presidential election – with Jean Ping contesting the narrow victory announced for President Ali Bongo Ondimba, his former brother-in-law whom he served as foreign minister – is just the most recent manifestation of political turbulence in a region where vulnerable economies have been rendered even more fragile by the slump in the global commodities cycle. Suggestions that Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso and allies close to the presidency in Côte d’Ivoire might have supported Ping against Bongo point to the network of close contacts that still typifies the region’s murky politics.

The World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation is requesting expressions of interest from consultants to help the Electric Supply Company of Malawi (Escom) implement the results of a commercial loss reduction study. The consultant will develop a roadmap covering diagnostic work, a losses baseline, assessing and establishing commercial losses, assessing and establishing technical losses, and conducting a review of the regulatory framework. Submissions are due by 8 October. For more information see: https://wbgeconsult2.worldbank.org.

Operator CNOOC has made a gas and oil discovery with the E-1 exploration well on the Elephant prospect in the Haute Mer A licence area. Partner Oryx Petroleum said the discovery would be tested in early 2014 as part of a multi-well drilling and testing programme on the block. “Reservoir quality, crude quality and viscosity appear to be better than originally anticipated while the areal extent of the reservoir appears to be slightly smaller than expected,” said Oryx chief operating officer Henry Legarre. “Although subject to testing, the discovery gives us confidence that there is further upside potential and opportunity to expand the prospect inventory in the licence area.”

The Agence Française de Développement and the Kenyan and French governments signed a financing agreement worth €33m ($37m) on 1 August to support renewable energy powered mini grids. The project is expected to introduce 9.6MW of solar photovoltaic capacity and 0.6MW of wind generation to power 23 mini grids which currently rely on diesel generators. Kenya Power will be responsible for the project, which is expected to reduce the cost of power on the grids by an average of 20%.

The Export-Import Bank of India has approved a $24m line of credit to the government of Côte d’Ivoire towards the $136.3m cost of a project to connect the electricity grids of the two countries. The Exim Bank has previously supported transmission lines between Côte d’Ivoire and Mali, agreeing a $30m line of credit in late 2009. Only Indian companies can be awarded contracts funded using the Exim Bank line of credit. The deal is the Indian export credit agency’s 200th line of credit worldwide, amounting to more than $12.2bn.

The US Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) has approved five-year compact agreements with Benin and Liberia, worth $375m and $257m respectively, and a $44.4m threshold agreement with Sierra Leone. The grant packages are intended to develop infrastructure in the three countries, with a focus on electricity in line with the MCC’s intention to invest $2bn in support of the Power Africa initiative. Liberia’s compact agreement was signed with the MCC on 2 October but required ratification by the country’s House of Representatives and Senate before it could be passed into law.

New Age (African Global Energy) has named Timothy Summers as non-executive chairman with effect from 1 September 2018. Summers, a former senior BP executive and board chair of the TNK-BP joint venture, replaces New Age founder Steve Lowden, who stepped down at the end of August. Lowden became non-executive chairman in June 2017, when the roles of chairman and chief executive were separated.

Eight solar power plants in rural areas with combined capacity of 16.6MW have begun operating in Mauritania, Masdar, part of Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Development Company, has announced. The plants were developed by Masdar in Boutilimit, Aleg, Aioune, Akjoujt, Atar, El Chami, Boulenour, and Bani Chab. An official inauguration was attended by President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz at the Atar site on 28 November, Mauritania’s national day. Masdar built the 15MW Sheikh Zayed solar power plant in the capital Nouakchott, which was inaugurated in 2013.

The success of Ethiopia’s $1bn, ten-year sovereign bond issue, to provide hard currency to finance infrastructure investment, has chalked up another significant triumph for its ‘developmental state’ – a highly centralised form of societal organisation that has delivered positive economic results despite exhibiting deeply-rooted authoritarian tendencies. Despite a range of potential political and economic risks, outlined in the bond’s 108-page prospectus, the poorest country ever to tap the global sovereign market attracted bids worth $2.6bn for a $1bn offer, at a competitive 6.625% interest rate.

A new company specialising in acreage in aspiring independent states has teamed up with a firm owned by a Puntland presidential candidate to explore a block offshore Somalia, writes William Macpherson. Belize-registered Kilimanjaro Capital has announced a farm-in agreement with Amsas Consulting, owned by Puntland 2014 presidential election candidate Dr Ali Abdullahi, for the Amsas-Coriole-Afgoye Block, which is presently under force majeure. Kilimanjaro will obtain a 5% non-working interest in the block,

Egypt could have a future as a Mediterranean gas exporter. Rising debts owed by Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) and other post-revolution problems weigh on international oil companies, but IOCs and industry analysts are optimistic about the prospects for further hydrocarbons discoveries in the Nile Delta, Western Desert and other regions, reflected in the latest EGPC licensing round bidding.

Prequalification bids were due on 12 February for companies interested in the design, supply, installation, operation and maintenance of a 100MW central receiver concentrating solar power plant in Upington, Northern Cape (AE 264/7). The project is being developed by Eskom, and invitations to bid are expected to be issued in April. The project is receiving financing from the African Development Bank, the Agence Française de Développement, the Clean Technology Fund, the European Investment Bank, Germany’s Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau and the World Bank.

The great opportunities that tempted so many international players into Libya’s energy sector have not gone away.