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French development agency Agence Française de Développement (AFD) is seeking expressions of interest from consultants to provide capacity building and technical assistance services for a project to rehabilitate and modernise the Nigerian electricity distribution network. The contract will cover one of two components in the project, alongside provision of a longterm credit facility to support local commercial bank financing. The Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (Aned), which applied for financing from the AFD and the European Union Infrastructure Trust Fund, will be responsible for the technical assistance programme.

Société Nigérienne d’Electricité has invited expressions of interest by 1 August from consultants to carry out a technical and economic feasibility study for the electrification of 100 rural communities, comprising around 200,000 inhabitants, through the installation of solar photovoltaic or hybrid mini-grids.

Office National de l’Electricité et de l’Eau Potable has given Spanish energy and environmental engineering group Abengoa a contract worth approximately €23m ($31m) for a new electricity transmission line. The contract, announced on 21 November, covers the engineering, design, construction, maintenance and commissioning of a 210km line in northern Morocco. The project consists of three 400kV sections: an 80km section between Matmata and Msoun, 80km between Msoun and Gteter and 5km between Bourdim and Jerada. The line is expected to come into operation in 2016 and is designed to improve power supply in northern Morocco as well as interconnection with the Algerian grid.

Afrinvest name change; Maputo port investment; First Quantum financing; PA bond issue

Kosmos Energy is drilling a second well offshore Mauritania, with results expected in the middle of Q4. The Dallas-based company said in an operational update that the Marsouin-1 well on Block C8 spudded on 28 August. The well is located some 60km north of the basin-opening Tortue-1 well in a water depth of 2,400 metres and is designed to test a four-way trap with multiple stacked targets, including Lower Cenomanian, Albian and Aptian formations. It is targeting 300mboe of gas and liquids, and Kosmos plans up to seven exploration and appraisal wells over the next 18 months.

Transport minister Amadou Koné on 17 December launched a fleet of buses fuelled by compressed natural gas (CNG). Engie and Tractebel worked together to engineer, supply and install a CNG fuelling station at the Société des Transports Abidjanais (Sotra) depot in Abidjan’s Yopougon district for 50 Crealis buses, supplied by Iveco, which will run on CNG in the Abidjan area.

Has Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar overreached in his high-risk military advance on Tripoli? The dominant view is that he has erred politically by throwing everything into an all-or-nothing play for domination, and militarily by underestimating the difficulty of conquering the capital and the cohesiveness of local militias. The alternative view is that while military options remain open to him, there is no reason to compromise, especially with the militias who increasingly dominate and control the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA). He may still have some advantage to gain.

Mozambique’s Energy Fund (Funae) and the Belgian Development Agency (Enabel) are seeking consultants to assist with the development of hybrid solar PV mini-grids. Bids are sought by 15 April for technical, financial, environmental and socio-economic feasibility studies on five potential sites, of which three are located in the coastal area of Zambézia Province (Namanla, Alto Maganha and Idugo) and two in the inland province of Nampula (Muite and Milhana). The mini-grids will supply electricity for domestic and public use, as well as for irrigation systems and small-scale industry.

Mining companies have expressed concern that April’s increase in electricity and fuel prices will not only hurt existing mining operations, but also make Africa’s second biggest copper producer less attractive as an investment destination. In April, the Energy Regulation Board (ERB) approved a 28.8% electricity price increase for mining companies and raised fuel prices by an average of 8.3% after the kwacha lost value against major convertible currencies. The ERB said the bulk supply agreement tariffs between state power company Zesco and Copperbelt Energy Corporation had been adjusted to 6.84 cents/kWh from 5.31 cents/kWh.

The government has published a comprehensive atlas of Democratic Republic of Congo’s renewables potential, focusing on the vast hydro resource outside the Grand Inga complex. The 582-page atlas, compiled by experts from the United Nations Development Programme, SNV Netherlands Development Organisation and the Congolese Ministry of Water Resources and Energy, also outlines potential wind, solar and geothermal projects, and even the biogas potential of Congolese livestock, but the main focus is hydropower, whose total potential is estimated at 100,000MW, including 44,000MW at the Inga site.

Beverages manufacturer Schweppes Zimbabwe has commissioned a 1MW solar plant which project installers have described as the largest roof-mounted commercial solar system by an IPP in southern Africa outside South Africa. The solar plant was installed by Distributed Power Africa (DPA), an Econet-owned off-grid company that specialises in the building and installation of solar plants, at a cost of $2m.The system is grid tied with generator integration and will provide energy for the soft drink maker’s production facility, ensuring continuous production in a country plagued by chronic electricity shortages.

Having brought in a Japanese partner, the US indie is preparing to drill off Sierra Leone and Liberia, hoping to continue the region’s success with the drillbit established by Ghana’s oil plays. Meanwhile controversial entrepreneur Frank Timis is tightening his grip on resources plays in Sierra Leone

A decade-old production-sharing agreement (PSA) for three blocks in the Cuvette Centrale Basin has moved a step closer to approval with a new draft submitted to cabinet on 15 January. The PSA was originally signed on 21 December 2007 between the government and the Comico-Cohydro joint venture of Compagnie Minière du Congo and the state-owned Congolaise des Hydrocarbures for the exploration and development of blocks I, II and III of the Cuvette Centrale Basin.

ANGOLA: New find on Block 31; ANGOLA: First oil from Morsa West; ANGOLA: Total gives CGGVeritas 4D inversion project; CHAD: New find for CNPC; EGYPT: BG begins Phase V gas production from WDDM; EGYPT: East Mediterranean Gas in repricing deal; LIBYA: Petrobras drills in Area 18; MOROCCO: New gas find for Circle; NIGERIA: Oando wins swamp drilling contract; NIGERIA: Acergy to revamp Mobil platforms

The government has launched a third, and probably last, request for proposals (RfP) under the pilot Global Energy Transfer Feed-in Tariffs (GET FiT) programme. To date, a total of 13 renewable energy projects with a combined installed capacity of 108.5MW have been approved by GET FiT, following two tenders in 2013-14 (see table, page 9). The current RfP was launched on 10 November with the aim of supporting a further 60-80MW of capacity. The closing date is 23 January, with the next group of developers expected to be selected in June 2015.