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Kenya Petroleum Refineries Ltd is inviting bids for an engineering, procurement and construction contract for a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) import, handling, storage and bottling facility in Mombasa.

Cennergi, a 50:50 joint venture between miner Exxaro Resources and Tata Power, achieved commercial operations for its 95MW Tsitsikamma community wind farm project on 17 August. Cennergi was selected as the preferred bidder for two wind projects under the second window of the government’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme. Cennergi began operating its 134MW Amakhala Emoyeni wind power plant in the Eastern Cape in July.

A $2bn framework partnership agreement signed by Benchmark Power International (BPI) chairman Dr Ahmed Baghat and Abraaj Group partner Neside Anvaripour at the Egyptian government’s Africa 2016 conference on 20 February covers the financial envelope for the development of the first 1,200MW phase of the Motobas combined-cycle gas turbine plant in Egypt’s Nile Delta and the 450MW Geregu 3 plant at Ajaokuta, in Kogi State. Speaking a few days earlier at Energynet’s Egypt Electricity Investment Summit in Cairo, Dr Baghat said BPI had negotiated a gas supply agreement with Nigeria’s Seplat at a regulated price through the gas aggregator.

The Eastern African Power Pool (EAPP) is restructuring its organization and independent regulatory board, officials say. The Eastern Africa Power Master Plan, released in 2011, is also being updated, to take account of the region’s accelerated growth. The revised master plan is scheduled to appear by June 2014.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is considering providing a $28m loan to finance the expansion of Egyptian oil field services company Advanced Energy System. The expansion includes the purchase of an offshore drilling rig, to be operated in Egypt. The loan aims to increase domestic private sector participation in the Egyptian offshore drilling industry, which is dominated by a handful of large multinationals and public sector companies.

CIC Energy Corporation has signed a memorandum of understanding with a Chinese company to develop a 300MW power station and associated mine at the Mmamabula coalfield to supply the domestic market.

Kibo Mining has signed a collaboration agreement with General Electric International for the development of the Mbeya coal-to-power project. The agreement follows a memorandum of understanding announced on 16 September and sets out in detail the terms and conditions of the companies’ collaboration in a binding agreement. The agreement provides for GE to supply equipment, technology and services to the power plant, and work with Kibo to implement the project. Final commercial bids from GE and preferred engineering, procurement and construction contractor Sepco III were received on 31 October.

Gécamines is planning a 500MW coal-fired power plant in Katanga province, its managing director, Ahmed Kalej Nkand, told Spintelligent’s late October Ipad event in Lubumbashi.

Electricity and energy minister Hassan Younis met petroleum and mineral resources minister Sameh Fahmy in late October to confirm the supply of additional gas to the Ministry of Electricity to meet targets in 2011.

Updated forecasts from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) show global expansion weakening with the world’s gross domestic product (GDP) growing by an estimated 3.7% in 2018, and forecast at 3.5% in 2019 and 3.6% in 2020. The projections are downward revisions from October’s World Economic Outlook (WEO), in part reflecting the trade war between the United States and China. A tightening of the Chinese economy may be reflected in Beijing’s reappraisal of lending to sub-Saharan Africa.

Pay-as-you-go power distributor M-Kopa Solar on 24 March announced that it had connected over 20,000 off-grid homes in Uganda; it is now expanding its solar power distribution, targeting an additional 50,000 Ugandan homes by end-2015. M-Kopa Solar was launched in October 2012 in Kenya, where it now supplies over 150,000 homes, and began pilot operations in eastern Uganda in mid-2013. Consumer-friendly sales plans, serviced with regular payments via mobile phones (in Uganda provided by MTN Mobile Money and Airtel Money, in Kenya by the fast-growing M-Pesa platform), are central to M-Kopa’s rapid growth.

Ugandan developer Xsabo Group has launched construction of a 25MW solar park at Kabulasoke in the central district of Gomba. Vice-president Edward Ssekandi laid the first of the 68,000 modules in a ceremony on 3 October. President Yoweri Museveni is expected to commission the $24.5m project in November, with the Buganda King Ronald Mutebi expected to lay the last module. Xsabo Group plans to commission a total of 150MW of solar power around the country at a cost of $199m.

South Africa’s SacOil Holdings has named former senior Tullow Oil executive Jan Maier as

On 10 October, President Joyce Banda sacked her cabinet amid allegations – dubbed the Capital Hill cash-gate scandal – of widespread government corruption. The scandal appears to have been sparked by the early September attempted assassination of Ministry of Finance budget director Paul Mphwiyo. At first, criminal elements were blamed for the shooting, but most Malawi observers now agree it was linked to a falling-out among corrupt officials who had been exploiting government accounting system loopholes to steal money. Some cabinet members were reinstated but, in mid-October, Banda named former World Bank economist Maxwell Mkwezalamba as finance minister, replacing the sacked Ken Lipenga. 


ExxonMobil has signed production-sharing contracts (PSCs) for new ultra-deep blocks CI-602 and CI-603. The two blocks, in water depths of 3,000 to 4,000 metres, cover areas of 3,874km² and 5,543km² respectively. Six new ultra-deep blocks immediately south of the country’s existing acreage were unveiled at a roadshow in Houston on 14 October.Speaking at the signing ceremony in Abidjan on 16 December, oil minister Adama Toungara said Côte d’Ivoire had signed 22 new PSCs in the three years since Alassane Ouattara became president, and more than 20 development and exploration wells had been drilled.