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Nava Bharat Ventures announced in late July that Maamba Collieries has synchronised the first 150MW unit of a coal power plant to the grid. The much-needed power has come later than planned, with Zambia purchasing power from emergency power plants and the Southern African Power Pool in the interim as hydropower plants have suffered from drought and poor management. Nava Bharat said that “the synchronisation of the second 150MW unit will follow soon while stabilisation and commercial operations of the two units will be pursued in the coming weeks”.

The World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) has named Vera Songwe as regional director for West and Central Africa, based in Dakar. Songwe, a Cameroonian national who joined the World Bank Group in 1998, was previously World Bank country director for Senegal, Cape Verde, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Mauritania. Her appointment is effective from 1 July and she replaces Saran Kebet-Koulibaly, who joins IFC’s management team in Washington as vice-president for corporate sustainability and risk.

The government has introduced regulations under which power utility Sonelgaz will pay feed-in tariffs to independent power producers using renewable or efficient technologies. On 18 June, Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal signed an executive decree laying down the terms and conditions under which independent generators would qualify for premium prices. However, it may take one to two years before industry regulator the Commission de Régulation de l’Electricité et du Gaz (Creg) formally fixes the tariffs.

Canadian Natural Resources (CNR) is awaiting regulatory approval for a farm-in to offshore blocks 11B/12B. The company said in a shareholder presentation it hoped to drill in Q4 2013 or Q1 2014. The well is eagerly awaited as providing a first test of South Africa’s deep offshore potential

Office Nationale des Hydrocarbures et des Mines on 22 September announced the signing of a reconnaissance contract with Royal Dutch Shell for the Issouka onshore area in north-east Morocco. This followed a similar announcement on 9 September of a reconnaissance contract with Spain’s Repsol Exploracion Atlas for the onshore Aoufouss area in eastern Morocco.

The Desertec Industrial Initiative (DII) to export solar power from North Africa to Europe continues to exercise considerable media and industry interest, promising clean energy from a network of solar generators based in the desert lands south of the Mediterranean.

Royal Air Maroc’s daily flight from Casablanca to Conakry is packed as Guineans return home and business travellers arrive, including Moroccans meeting King Mohammed VI’s call to expand the kingdom’s commercial footprint south of the Sahara. The airline’s expansion to make Casablanca a major African transport hub is part of a wider strategy that has seen the big three Moroccan banks – Attijariwafa Bank, BMCE Bank of Africa and Banque Centrale Populaire (BCP) – buying up African assets, phosphate giant OCP Group investing in Ethiopia and Nigeria, and plans for a gas pipeline linking Nigeria to the Mediterranean coast.

The Islamic Development Bank is providing the government with $56m to finance the second phase of a project to rehabilitate and extend the electricity network in Conakry. Work will be carried out in the Matam, Matoto and Lansanayah districts, and Electricité de Guinée intends to use some of the funds to supervise the work. Tenders will be issued over the coming months, with contracts announced as they become available.

Presidential adviser on energy Rilwanu Lukman has said he expects final government approval of his report on the restructuring of the Nigerian hydrocarbons sector “in the next week or two”.

Is Libya, with its huge and apparently available upstream potential – not to mention its long pockets following several years of oil price boom – going to break investors’ hearts by embracing the sort of resource nationalism that the more liberal members of Muammar Qadhafi’s regime say the Jamahiriya (State of the Masses) had left behind? Since Colonel Qadhafi said that Libya might nationalise

Norway’s InterOil Exploration & Production has signed an agreement with Iran’s Petropars to sell 10% in the CabindaNorth licence for $7m. The 2,400km2 block is operated by Sonangol P&P and InterOil farmed-in in January 2008, taking21%. The block has existing oil discoveries in the Zila ridge area near the coast and in the Dinge high area. Sonangol has 20%;other partners on the block are SOCO International with 17%, Teikoku Oil Company (17%), Angola Consulting Resources(Acrep) (15%) and Eni Angola (10%).

Japan’s Toshiba Corporation on 27 August signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development outlining a partnership to develop geothermal power projects and training. Under the agreement signed at the Sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Nairobi on 27-28 August, Toshiba will collaborate in the development and supply of equipment for a geothermal power plant, create operation and management guidelines, and assist with the training of personnel.

National Transitional Council oil commitee chairman: Mustafa El-Huni, Omar Shakmak, Ali Tarhouni, Nouri Berouin

Philippe Edmonds’ latest venture, BioEnergy Africa Ltd, floated on London’s Alternative Investment Market on 1 September.

Despite rising electricity demand in southern Africa, developing the Kudu gasfield to feed a regional generation scheme remains a distant hope.