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Reshuffle has brought some new faces onto the energy scene, but old guard remain in key posts

The fallout from Saudi Arabia’s 6 March decision to pull the plug on negotiations with Russia to extend and deepen Opec and non-Opec crude production cuts risks dragging Africa’s leading oil exporters into prolonged recession if oil prices do not recover quickly from their new levels of around $35/barrel.All Opec production quotas, Russian commitments to curb its output and other restraint pledges by non-Opec states, which have been in place since 2016, expire at the end of March.

With potential new partners showing interest following Cairn Energy’s two discoveries in Senegalese blocks immediately to the north, the government has restored African Petroleum Corporation’s licences for blocks A1 and A4.The licences were cancelled in January for non-performance. African Petroleum had disputed the government’s move and sought arbitration at the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, but proceedings will now be dropped. African Petroleum has negotiated an extension to the first exploration period, which will now expire on 1 September 2016.

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) on 26 September approved a loan of €18m ($20m) and a partial risk guarantee for the 32MWp first phase of the Djermaya solar PV plant. The plant, Chad’s first utility-scale renewable power plant and first public-private partnership in the power sector, will be built at a site 30km north of N’Djamena by a developer consortium of Aldwych International, working on behalf of InfraCo Africa, and France’s Smart Energies.

Gigawatt Global’s Nigerian arm, Nigeria Solar Capital Partners (NSCP), signed a joint development agreement on 9 September with Globeleq Advisors Limited and the ARM-Harith Infrastructure Fund to fund and co-develop a 100MW solar photovoltaic project in Bauchi State. The project has a signed 20-year power purchase agreement with Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading, and the parties anticipate reaching financial close in summer 2017. The ARM-Harith Infrastructure Fund is a private equity fund based in Nigeria with a targeted fund size of $250m. It has been set up to invest in infrastructure projects and companies across West Africa, with a focus on Nigeria.

Norway’s DNO International has completed farm-ins to the Sfax Offshore exploration permit and the Ras El Besh concession under an agreement with Eurogas International and Atlas Petroleum Exploration Worldwide. DNO Tunisia now holds an 87.5% participating (100% paying) interest in the permit and the concession, and has assumed operatorship and a significant share of costs. The two licences are located in the prolific Gulf of Gabes and cover 3,296km2, mostly offshore in shallow waters. To date, three discoveries have been made with combined recoverable resources of 35m-60m barrels of oil, and the assets hold significant exploration potential, with 29 prospects estimated to contain 500m-700m barrels of unrisked resources.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s announcement that the Department for International Development (DfID) would merge with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in September is more than an institutional rearrangement of the international relations machinery in post-Brexit Global Britain. The move has been long promised, and Johnson says it will strengthen the United Kingdom’s ability to project itself abroad as a force for good.

Created by Inca Energy France and the local Nu Age Energy, iNca Energy was established in 2009 to operate in a market desperate for alternative energy solutions following the South Africa electricity crisis. The company has some 13 projects in various stages of development across the Northern and Western Cape provinces.

BP has given Golar LNG Limited a limited notice to proceed for the provision of a floating liquefaction vessel to support the development of Phase 1 of the Greater Tortue/Ahmeyim field as the project closes in on an imminent final investment decision (FID). This follows a preliminary agreement and heads of terms for a charter agreement with BP announced by Golar in April. FID on the development is planned around year-end or early in 2019, once the governments have granted an exclusive exploitation authorisation.

France’s Engie has shelved plans for a liquefied natural gas export plant on the southern coast at Lolabé. Engie, formerly GDF Suez, had been developing the 3.5m tonne LNG project in partnership with Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SNH) since 2008 and the two companies completed front-end engineering design for the scheme in early 2016. Engie said the scheme had been placed on hold due to unfavourable market conditions. Late last year, SNH and Perenco announced a final investment decision for an eight-year floating LNG project to sell gas to Russia’s Gazprom.

Eren Renewable Energy and its partner African Energy Management Platform (AEMP) have given Finland’s Wärtsilä an engineering, procurement and construction contract for the supply of a 15MWp solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in north-eastern Burkina Faso. The solar plant will be built next to an existing 55MW heavy fuel oil-fired power plant also supplied by Wärtsilä and will be controlled and operated in synchronisation, thus forming the largest engine-solar PV hybrid power plant in Africa, Wärtsilä announced on 22 March.

National Oil Corporation (NOC) chairman Mustafa Sanalla is solidifying his control of the corporation’s commercial activities. He has appointed a trusted executive, Imad Ben Rajab, formerly manager of the products marketing department, as the new head of the international marketing department which oversees the sale of all Libya’s crude oil. Ahmed Shawki, who has run he department since 2011, will stay on as a consultant. There is some question about how willingly he stepped down.

Oando has denied reports that it plans to sell its Oando Energy Services (OES) drilling subsidiary as it finalises the purchase of ConocoPhillips’ Nigerian assets by Oando Energy Resources (OER). “We wish to explicitly state that OER has successfully acquired all funds required to complete the acquisition, and is awaiting the consent of the minister of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum,” Oando said in a statement on 19 February. Oando announced on 31 January that the company had secured the $1.66bn necessary to conclude the acquisition and was extending the completion date to 28 February.

Ethiopia lacks a nationwide transmission and distribution network, especially in the rural areas where 85% of the population live.

Morocco is talking to the Mauritanian government about an interconnection that would bring Société Mauritanienne d’Electricité (Somelec) into the North African Maghreb Electricity Committee (Comelec) grid. An interconnection would also link Office National de l’Electricité et de l’Eau Potable into the growing West African grid, Moroccan energy, mines and sustainable development minister Abdelaziz Rabbah told the Africa Energy Forum (AEF) in June.