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Mnazi Bay partners Wentworth Resources and Maurel & Prom began delivering gas on 20 August to fill the new Mtwara to Dar es Salaam pipeline. Production rates are expected to reach 70mcf/d by October and 80mcf/d by year-end. Once the 517km pipeline is filled, Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) is expected to start gas deliveries to power and industrial companies in October. The pipeline has been built by China Petroleum Technology and Development Corporation, with WorleyParsons acting as project manager.

The National Directorate of Industry Commerce and Energy (DNICE) is seeking expressions of interest (EoIs) by 30 January for a 5MW solar photovoltaic power plant in Ervadão on Boavista island and a 10MW wind plant on Santiago island.The directorate, part of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Energy, is seeking a private sector developer to design, engineer, construct, commission, finance, own, operate and maintain the plants as independent power producers (IPPs) on a build, own, operate basis.

South Sudan’s oil revenue has continued to fall in H2 2017 as diversions of crude to pay off arrears to Sudan have increased. The government of South Sudan (GoSS) netted just 15,000 b/d of oil production in H2, down from 22,000 b/d in H1. Overall output was modest but steady, at an average 118,000 b/d in H2, the same as for H1. But almost a third of this output is being diverted to Sudan.The drop in GoSS crude share is down to further increases in cargoes diverted to its northern neighbour.

After official silence and considerable speculation, the Equatorial Guinea government confirmed reports that a putsch was launched against President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo on 24 December. Security has been considerably ratcheted up in the oil-rich dictatorship after the government in early January said “mercenaries” – at least 27 armed men it claimed were from Chad, Cameroon, Sudan and Central African Republic – had been arrested. Arms and ammunition were found just over the border in Cameroon, security minister Nicolas Obama Nchama said.

The World Bank’s International Finance Corporation has invested $127.5m in a $400m trade facility that will finance Mauritania’s entire refined energy import needs for the next two years.

The Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons has signed memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with successful bidders from its 2019 licensing round during the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Forum in Abu Dhabi.

Isarene drilling to start in May; Russian field development to proceed; Minister says Tullow will get Lake Albert stakes; Chevron awards FEED, New find on Abu Qir for Edison; Burullus Gas extends rig contract; Essar gets back OPL 226

Fuel pricing will be reviewed as the company sues government over the cancellation of a fuel supply contract, writes Our Windhoek Correspondent. Glencore Energy has made good on its legal threats and sued the Mines and Energy Ministry to re-instate its contract to provide half of the country’s estimated 750,000 t/yr liquid fuel requirements (AE 197/20).

Brazil’s Vale SA will start building a thermal power station next year at its $1,322m Moatize coal project, the state-owned Noticias newspaper reported on 2 June. The plant will have an eventual capacity of 1,800MW, with its first unit producing one-third of that.

The World Bank’s International Finance Corporation is to provide $70m in loans as part of a $190m long-term financing package to the Umeme electricity distribution utility. Stanbic and Standard Chartered Bank also participated in the financing, which aims to help the company meet increasing demand for power, while controlling costs and improving operational efficiency. “This financing is a milestone for the energy sector, which has never had anything like this level of investment in the distribution network,” said Umeme chairman Patrick Bitature.

Kosmos Energy plans a new drilling campaign next year exploring basin floor fans in deeper water outboard from its previous exploration in the hope of finding oil. “We are currently acquiring seismic data in southern Mauritania and northern Mauritania, and this seismic data has imaged giant to supergiant leads and prospects in a basin floor setting. We plan on drilling out a three-well programme at a minimum, starting in 2017, that will test a gross unrisked mean resource of 29bn boe,” Kosmos vice-president exploration Tracey Henderson told Global Pacific & Partners’ Africa Upstream conference on 1 November.

The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (Miga) has issued an investment guarantee supporting ContourGlobal’s KivuWatt project to generate power from Lake Kivu’s methane. The $142m project involves an integrated methane gas extraction and production facility and associated 25MW power plant at Kibuye, on the shore of Lake Kivu.

In a recent white paper, UK-based Aggreko became the latest traditional supplier of thermal power solutions to advocate the use of solar-battery-diesel hybrid systems at mines. The company, which launched its hybrid offering 18 months ago and installed its first system last year at the Bisha gold mine in Eritrea, joined another major mine supplier, Wärtsilä, in promoting the technology for mines. But mining is not the only area where Aggreko is having to look at new products and business models.

EDF International and its partners have set up the Nachtigal Hydro Power Company (NHPC) to develop the 420MW Nachtigal dam scheme on the Sanaga River.NHPC, a Cameroonian limited company based in Yaoundé, was established on 7 July. It is 40% owned by EDF, 30% by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation and 30% by the Cameroonian state. Establishment of the project company follows the signing of a joint development agreement in November 2013, and a production concession contract in July 2014.

Italy’s Eni has expanded its central African footprint by moving into the Democratic Republic of Congo with a farm-in agreement with Surestream Petroleum to acquire 55% and operatorship in the Ndunda Block.