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Former GNPC head jailed; Winfield wins approvals for refinery project; Abu Dhabi plans refinery; Chemical distribution deal; Petronas puts refinery on hold

After a three-year interruption, construction has resumed at a 36MW hydropower dam at the FE2 falls on the Okano River in Woleu-Ntem province. Engineers of the China Gezhouba Group Company (CGGC) told energy and water resources minister Guy Bertrand Mapangou during a 14 April site visit that the CFA23bn ($40m) scheme would be completed within three years.

From a trucking company growing fast in Republic of Congo to commercial ports serving West and Central Africa, delegates at the 28-29 September AIX: Transport and Logistics meeting discussed a range of developments across the air, ports, rail, roads and logistics sectors. Multilateral and development finance institutions (DFIs) reported on support for big-ticket projects; private equity executives eyed potential deals. But the mood was not entirely upbeat, as all too many participants recounted tales of stalled projects.

Premier Oil has confirmed plans to shut down the Chinguetti field by year-end, saying operator Petronas submitted an abandonment and decommissioning plan to the government on 29 June. Output has declined steadily due to natural decline from the existing wells, and the field is no longer economic at the current low oil price. Chinguetti started up in 2003, but proved more geologically complex and less productive than anticipated. Gross production in 2015 averaged 5,083 b/d, compared to 5,512 b/d in 2014. No infill drilling or workover activity took place on the field during 2015.

With interest in Mauritania revived by Kosmos Energy’s gas discoveries, ExxonMobil has signed production-sharing agreements (PSAs) for three vacant deep-water blocks. Blocks C22, C17 and C14 are located an average of 200km offshore. Together they measure nearly 34,000km2, in water depths ranging from 1,000 metres to more than 3,500 metres.The new licences follow a farm-in to Kosmos’ blocks by BP, announced in December 2016, while in May, Total signed a new PSA for Block C7, previously operated by Dana Petroleum.

Ophir Energy signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on 6 November with Excelerate Energy, GEPetrol and the Ministry of Mines, Industry and Energy for a planned floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) project on Block R. Excelerate will be appointed as the lead in a consortium of floating liquefaction and storage technology providers expected to include Samsung Heavy Industries and Black & Veatch.It will be Africa’s first floating LNG project, and will gain a market advantage by coming on stream sooner than planned schemes in Tanzania and Mozambique

Uganda plans to launch a second licensing round in May, offering relinquished areas and new acreage, notably in Lake Albert. Energy minister Irene Muloni told a press briefing during Africa Oil Week in Cape Town a technical team was working on demarcating the blocks in preparation for a launch at the East African Petroleum Conference in Mombasa in May. The blocks on offer will vary in size from 600km2 to 1,200km2, Muloni said. All have some 2D data, and some have 3D and well data.

ExxonMobil signed an agreement with regulator Agence Nationale pour la Valorisation des Ressources en Hydrocarbures (Alnaft) on 29 September to participate in a study assessing the hydrocarbon potential of basins in the Algerian Sahara. Exxon has been looking at opportunities in Algeria for some time, and had been in talks with Sonatrach to develop a field in the south-western Ahnet Basin, but talks stalled in March 2019 following protests against former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

Managing director Rob Shepherd and finance director Andrew Rose have resigned from Azonto Petroleum following a review of the company’s operating structure and costs. Development of the Gazelle gas field has made only slow progress, chiefly because of the complexities of co-ordinating the upstream development with a planned gas-fired power plant, but Azonto affiliate Vioco received an Exclusive Exploitation Authorisation for the field in December. “This, coupled with progress being made in respect of the CI-Energies IPP project, means that momentum is clearly building as Vioco moves towards project sanction mid year.

The US Overseas Private Investment Corporation has agreed to provide $37.8m in political risk insurance to support ContourGlobal’s construction and operation of three combined heat and power generation (CHP) plants for Nigeria Bottling Company (NBC).

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 Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (Masen) has issued a request for proposals (RfP) from contractors for the repowering of the Koudia Al Baida wind farm, which aims to increase capacity at the site to around 120MW from 50MW now. The Koudia Al Baida repowering project involves replacing the 83 existing Vestas V42-600 kW turbines and seven Enercon E40 turbines with new units with a rated power of 3-5MW so as to reach a total capacity of around 120MW while optimising the levelised cost of electricity.

Rating agency Standard & Poor’s has stuck by its ‘stable’ outlook in the wake of the presidential election, viewing Nigeria’s robust balance sheet as a counterweight to its political risks.

China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) has extended by one year a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in May 2010 for the construction of three greenfield refineries and a petrochemical plant (AE 187/19). The MoU was renewed because Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had not completed the necessary feasibility studies.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will hold public hearings in the maritime border dispute between Somalia and Kenya on 19-23 September in The Hague. The hearings will concern solely the preliminary objections to the jurisdiction of the court and the admissibility of the application raised by Kenya in October 2015, an ICJ statement said. Kenya maintains that the Indian Ocean boundary should be a straight line running directly east from the point at which the two countries meet on land.