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Founders Tony Hayward and Nat Rothschild have quit the board of Genel Energy, while the head of the company’s second biggest shareholder was voted off at the annual general meeting (AGM) on 6 June. Tolga Bilgin joined the board in March this year after his Bilgin Enerji company increased its stake in Genel to just over 15%. Hayward had announced his departure in April, while Rothschild’s resignation was announced the day before the AGM.

The new arrangement to bring US major ExxonMobil into the exploration of Block B ends speculation that Qatar Petroleum (QP) and Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Development Company might take an interest in the acreage.

Eskom group executive for transmission Thava Govender told the Africa Energy Indaba conference on 17 February that budget quotes containing binding grid connection terms needed for independent power projects (IPPs) to reach financial close will be sent to preferred bidders from the fourth and expedited fourth rounds of the renewable energy IPP procurement programme by April. IPP Office head of strategy Sandra Coetzee told African Energy that a request for proposals (RfP) for the fifth round is expected to be issued in March.

BP Angola has given Technip a five-year contract for engineering and modification services for the Greater Plutonio and Plutão, Saturno, Venus and Marte (PSVM) floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) units in blocks 18 and 31.

Energy minister Gilbert Tshiongo Tshibinkubula Wa Tumba and mines minister Martin Kabwelulu Labilo sat side by side at Spintelligent’s annual IPAD DRC conference, in Kinshasa on 27 October, to announce a new ‘strategic partnership’ along with the Ministry of Transport. Mining drives the DRC economy, but it cannot function without the energy and transport infrastructure Congo so lacks.

The government is planning to raise FCFA360bn ($583m) before the end of the year to help clear debts to crude suppliers accumulated by Société Ivoirienne de Raffinage (SIR) since 2008. A restructuring plan was approved by cabinet in October 2016 to help the refinery tackle its financial problems. The government is considering the best option for securing funds, but is expected to opt for long-term bank debt, to be recovered at least partially via a levy on pump prices.

Political battles and allegations of malfeasance over contract awards, coupled with shortfalls in financing from the World Bank Group (WBG) and other donors, mean critical infrastructure work is moving painfully slowly

President Yoweri Museveni has launched construction of the 183MW Isimba hydro project on the River Nile. China International Water & Electric Corporation is building the dam with financing from the Export-Import Bank of China under an agreement reached between Uganda and China in July.

US-based temporary power provider APR Energy announced on 18 September that it had completed the installation and commissioning of a 35MW power plant for Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) and the addition of 48MW capacity to an existing plant for national utility Société Nationale d’Eléctricité du Sénégal (Senelec) in Senegal. The facility in Botswana was announced on 27 May and will help offset continued problems at BPC’s 600MW Morupule B project.

Uganda suffered a nationwide power outage on 14 April after a giant floating mass of vegetation blocked water intake screens at the Nalubaale hydropower station, putting the country’s three main power plants out of action. Eskom Uganda said the water weed island had been carried by rising water levels in Lake Victoria. Power was lost at the 380MW Kiira-Nalubaale complex, and at the 250MW Bujagali plant downstream.The outage meant a national broadcast by President Yoweri Museveni on the coronavirus crisis had to be delayed by an hour.

Woodside Energy has said the Sangomar field development remains on track for first oil in 2023, despite comments by President Macky Sall that coronavirus would delay Senegal’s oil and gas developments by up to two years. Woodside and its partners took a final investment decision for Sangomar phase 1 in January. “Since then, Woodside has taken early action to proactively manage the emerging impacts of Covid-19 on the supply chain and project schedule.

The government has been forced to abandon ambitious targets as output grows more slowly than anticipated, while bureaucratic delays and shifting contract terms have put NOC under pressure, writes John Hamilton

Malaysia’s Petronas on 5 March announced a new oil and gas discovery from its Boudji-1 ultra-deep-water exploration well in Block F14 (Likuale) offshore southern Gabon. The well, drilled in water depths of 2,800 metres, encountered 90 metres of gross high-quality hydrocarbon-bearing pre-salt sands, Petronas said. Petronas will now work with the Ministry of Petroleum and Hydrocarbons to assess the discovery and determine the commerciality of the resource volume.

Liberia’s Senate and House of Representatives have voted to ratify an amended production-sharing contract for Block LB-13, enabling Canadian Overseas Petroleum Ltd (COPL) to bring in ExxonMobil as a partner (AE 250/1). The deal, which enables the US supermajor to take an 80% operating stake, had created controversy because of suspicions that Liberia might not be getting the best deal.

The appointment of Abdelrahman Benyezza as oil minister in the first post-Qadhafi government will help to reassure international oil companies that they can do business