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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.

PetroSA and Cairn India Group signed a farm-in agreement on 16 August for oil and gas exploration in offshore Block 1 in the Orange Basin, while Anadarko Petroleum Corporation has finalised a deal to operate Block 5/6 and Block 7.

Operator ADX Energy spudded the Sidi Dhaher well on the Chorbane permit near Sfax on 26 August. 

Tullow has lifted its declaration of force majeure over its Guinea acreage. The declaration was linked to an investigation of potential violations of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by Tullow’s partner Hyperdynamics, the original holder of the concession. “Diligent efforts are being made to satisfy the conditions to resuming petroleum operations which include clarification that the US FCPA investigations of Hyperdynamics will not adversely affect Tullow’s operations under the PSC,” the US company said. Industry sources had questioned the grounds for a force majeure declaration and linked the move to Tullow’s desire to cut exploration spending.

Sasol Petroleum International has opted to withdraw from its coalbed methane (CBM) prospecting licences. An update from chief financial officer Paul Victor covering the first nine months of the financial year said that Sasol had completed an early-stage CBM exploration programme in March 2013. “Following a comprehensive technical evaluation, we decided to withdraw from the CBM prospecting licences. We will, however, continue to monitor the Southern African CBM landscape, as well as that for both conventional and unconventional gas reserves.

In addition to major state companies that have long been regarded as major Gulf investors abroad, such as Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (Kufpec), a number of Kuwait-based companies have been established in recent years with aspirations to become major E&P companies by investing in Africa and other emerging frontiers.

The Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP) consortium, which plans to generate 300MW from a site in north-west Kenya, is assessing expressions of interest from potential bidders to prequalify for the construction of a 428km 400kV double circuit line and four substations.

There may be strong economic arguments, as well as the ethical objections raised by campaigners, why development finance institutions (DFIs) should no longer focus on supporting extractives-led growth. A Chatham House research paper* asks whether such models of development are still appropriate as the global economy reduces its carbon dependency. Discussion of the paper at the Fossil Fuel Supply and Climate Policy conference in Oxford on 26-27 September tested the thesis made popular among DFIs during the long commodities boom that exploiting natural resources could end aid dependency and drive socio-economic development.

The country’s difficult electricity supply situation will see load-shedding over the next two months, deputy energy, mines and water Charles Mathias Zulu said in Dubai on 9 June. Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation (Zesco) is expected to reduce its output by 300MW in June and by the same amount in July, he said, cutting maximum generation capacity to around 1.6GW – insufficient to meet the projected 1.9GW peak. “So we will be experiencing load-shedding,” Zulu told the Africa Energy Forum (AEF).

South African freight and logistics provider Grindrod has announced plans to work with Zambia’s Northwest Rail Company (NWR) to build, operate and maintain a new 590km railway from Chingola in the heart of the old Zambian Copperbelt to the Angolan border. NWR is run by former Zambian vice-president Enoch Kavindele. The Zambian government granted the company the right to build and run the railway in July 2006, and the agreement with Grindrod will enable the parties to conclude a bankable feasibility study.