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The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) board has delisted Gabon for failing to file its validation report by the December deadline. The board also suspended Sierra Leone and Mauritania. Having been granted previous extensions, Gabon was required to submit a validation report by 9 December 2012. The report arrived nine weeks after the deadline, on 15 February, but the validator found that Gabon had failed to meet seven out of 21 requirements.

A 24 May case management conference heard initial submissions in a tripartite case pitting SCS Corporation against AGR Well Management and drilling company Jasper Offshore. Hyperdynamics subsidiary SCS alleges that AGR – introduced by joint venture partner Dana Petroleum – caused the project to overrun and costs to balloon through inefficiency and incompetence. Singapore-based Jasper, which AGR contracted separately to undertake the drilling, has counter-claimed against AGR for $10m in outstanding invoices. SCS seeks indemnification of $47.3m, having paid AGR $107.6m for the project, while leaving $19.2m in an escrow account pending resolution of the dispute.




South Africa and Venezuela have signed an energy co-operation deal that would give state oil company PetroSA access to Venezuela’s Orinoco oil fields.

With the economy under intense pressure from lower oil prices, state utility Sonelgaz is preparing to launch a local bond issue in 2016, finance minister Abderahmane Benkhalfa said on 16 September. The bond would boost the Algiers bourse, Algérie Presse Service quoted the minister as saying. He said he hoped other public companies would follow. Commission d’Organisation et de Surveillance des Opérations de Bourse president Abdelhakim Berrah said Sonelgaz’s investment programme now exceeded $15bn, “which can only be raised with recourse to the capital market”.

Angola has sought help from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help reform its economy, discussing a three-year programme to combat the effects of prolonged low oil prices. An IMF programme will mean Angola will have to be more transparent in its finances, and implement the reforms that have been talked of for years with little result. Discussions are expected to start at the IMF and World Bank spring meetings in Washington on 15-17 April.

Work has begun on the design and manufacture of a solar-powered desalination plant in the Western Cape, which has been struggling with critically low water levels in its dams. The plant at Witsand in Hessequa municipality will cover around half of local community needs using solar power, producing 100,000 litres/d, and can increase production to 300,000 litres/d at peak times by supplementing solar power with electricity from the grid.

Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi on 22 August inaugurated the 106MW Maputo combined-cycle gas turbine power plant powered by gas from Sasol’s Pande and Temane fields. It was financed with a loan of up to Y17.269bn ($152m) from the Japan International Cooperation Agency, plus $13m from the government of Mozambique. The plant includes two 40MW aero-derivative LM6000 gas turbines, developed and manufactured by General Electric and Japan’s IHI Corporation, and a 26MW steam turbine. A turnkey engineering, procurement and construction contract was signed in February 2016 by Sumitomo and IHI.

Following its move into East Africa by buying Black Marlin Energy in October 2010, Afren has expanded its stake in Candax Energy’s Madagascar Block 1101

As it changes its focus to new ventures, the UK’s Sterling Energy has farmed down 50% of its Ambilobe Block in Madagascar and taken a 10% stake in the Odewayne Block in Somaliland. Sterling will take 10% in Odewayne from Petrosoma for an initial $2m, and will be carried by operator Genel Energy for the cost of at least 1,500km of 2D seismic and an exploration well. Petrosoma is an affiliate of Jersey-registered Prime Resources, run by Somaliland-born lawyer and businessman Mohammed Yusef Ali Gurey.

The World Bank Group (WBG) board on 17 September approved a $57m financing package for the Mozambique-Malawi Regional Interconnector Project, comprising a $42m grant for Mozambique and a $15m loan for Malawi from the International Development Association. The project involves construction of a 218km, 400kV double-circuit transmission line from Matambo substation in Tete Province, Mozambique, to Phombeya substation in Balaka District, Malawi. It will be Malawi’s first significant transmission interconnection and will allow it to trade on the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP).

National Oil Corporation (NOC) chairman Mustafa Sanalla has intensified his conflict with Presidency Council head Fayez Al-Sarraj, alleging that German oil company Wintershall has formed an alliance with the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) and succeeded in influencing the drafting of legislation for its commercial benefit. In a statement published on NOC’s website on 10 May, Sanalla said that, following the breakdown of negotiations over the renewal of its concessions, Wintershall had “shut in over 160,000 b/d of production, at a cost to the Libyan state of almost a quarter of a billion dollars per month”.

A surge of interest in South Africa’s hydrocarbons potential following recent success in Mozambique has seen ExxonMobil take 75% in Impact Oil & Gas’ offshore Tugela South licence, while Chevron has announced a tie-up with Falcon Oil & Gas to explore onshore for unconventional oil and gas.

The bankruptcy of Petroplus continues to trouble some of the Swiss refiner’s former suppliers. Petroplus owes Algeria’s Sonatrach over $250m for several cargoes of crude it delivered to the refiner, which filed for insolvency protection in January. Speaking in Algiers on 4 November, vice president for marketing Yamina Hamdi said “we are using all means possible to recoup these debts”.

Developer Joule Africa has bought partner Endeavor Energy’s stake in the Bumbuna II hydro project, giving it 100% ownership. Bumbuna II is the 202MW expansion of the 50MW Bumbuna scheme commissioned in 2009. The second phase project has been in development since 2011. Lahmeyer International has completed a feasibility study and managed a tender process to short-list Salini Impregilo and Hydrochina-Sinohydro, as potential engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors. ERM is completing environmental and social impact studies in conjunction with local consultants Cemmats.

fren affiliate Gasol has launched a multi-tranche, unsecured bond of up to $100m to fund initial development work for its liquefied natural gas import project in Benin. The first $20m tranche has been placed with institutional investors. The bond has an interest rate of 10%/yr and a maturity of three years. Any subsequent tranches will be subject to investor appetite.