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Three Kenya Power managers were charged by police, following a nationwide blackout in January. The Directorate of Criminal Investigations interrogated as many as 18 managers after transmission towers carrying power from the Kiambere hydropower plant to Nairobi collapsed, causing a blackout lasting several hours.

Bboxx Kenya agreed in January a KSh1.6bn ($15m) debt package with local commercial bank SBM Bank Kenya. The Private Infrastructure Development Group’s GuarantCo is underwriting the deal with a KSh1.2bn partial credit guarantee.

Panoro Energy has secured government approval to sell its interest in offshore block OML 113 – which contains the Aje field – to Africa-focused independent PetroNor. The deal will end Panoro’s presence in Nigeria’s upstream sector. It also paves the way for increasing oil and gas production from the current 1,900 b/d towards a target of 9,000 b/d under a three-phase field development programme.

The proliferation of coups d’état across West Africa and the wider region over the past 18 months points to the return of chronic instability to one of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable (not least to climate change) regions. Many parts of the post-colonial continent, and especially its emerging West African nations, were defined by the speedy demise of civilian government as military rulers took over in the 1960s.

Côte d’Ivoire state power company CI-Energies has finally launched a tender to build a 20MWp floating solar power plant and associated transmission network on the Kossou dam in Yamoussoukro autonomous district.

UK-based private equity fund Actis has secured a “an impact-linked revolving subscription credit facility” for its Energy 5 Fund. The fund, which will target energy transition investments, closed with $6bn of investable capital in October.

The contract to carry out a technical study for the liquified natural gas (LNG) terminal at Mohammedia port has been awarded by the National Ports Agency (ANP) to a consortium of the local Conseil Ingénierie Développement (CID) and French companies Artelia and Principia.

South Africa’s Gigajoule expects its $550m Matola LNG import terminal to reach financial close by end-2022, with construction starting soon after.

West Africa-focused Kosmos Energy is looking to increase its output by 50% in the next two years, taking net production well beyond 100,000 boe/d as it builds up its operations in Ghana, Equatorial Guinea and the emerging Senegal-Mauritania gas margin.

Mauritius-based independent power producer Tembo Power has invited expressions of interest (EoIs) by 31 March for an investment partner to co-develop a total 22MW of run-of-river hydroelectric power (HEP) capacity in Burundi: the 12.4MW Siguvyaye hydropower and 9.6MW Dama hydropower schemes.

Water resources and energy minister Gaston Eloundou Essomba has told utility Eneo it must implement the “daily rationing of energy-intensive firms in the city of Douala and its surrounding”, in a letter addressed to chief executive Eric Munsay.

AIM-listed Eco (Atlantic) Oil and Gas announced in early March that Norway’s Island Drilling Company had been awarded a contract to drill the Gazania-1 well in Block 2B in the Orange Basin, offshore South Africa.

Italian major Eni and state company Sonatrach has announced a “significant” oil and associated gas discovery in the Zemlet El Arbi concession in the Berkine North Basin. The discovery is estimated to contain 140m bbls of oil in place.

Ten months after the two majors mooted their Angola-focused tie-up, Eni and BP have formalised the combination of their local assets under a 50/50 joint venture (JV) known as Azule Energy. The new entity creates Angola’s largest oil producer, with at least 200,000 boe/d of combined net output and 2bn bbls equivalent in net resources.

Solen Energy has signed a framework agreement to develop the Ayémé solar PV project in two 60MW phases; the unit’s commercial operations are slated to start in 2023. Energy and water resources minister Alain Claude Bilié-By-Nze said the Ayémé project, in Estuaire province, would “reduce the problem of load shedding”.