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Kenya Power’s board of directors has named Ken Tarus as managing director and chief executive with effect from 1 August. Tarus had been acting managing director and chief executive since 4 January, when he was appointed following the departure of Ben Chumo at the end of his contract period. Tarus was previously the company’s general manager in charge of finance and had been a member of the executive management team for two years.

The Center for Studies and Initiatives for the Development of Equatorial Guinea (CEID) has protested against an Interior Ministry resolution ordering that the NGO should be dissolved. The decision was dated 11 April but delivered on 3 July. The CEID said the authorities had delayed making the decision public to avoid unwelcome publicity while Malabo was pursuing its application to re-join the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), hosting the African Development Bank annual meetings, receiving visits from delegations of the German parliament and Community of Lusophone Countries, and negotiating with the International Monetary Fund.

London Stock Exchange and Irish Stock Exchange-listed Aminex plc has reached agreement with East African Exploration Ltd (EAX) to increase its interest in the Nyuni production-sharing agreement and the 40m ft3/d gas discovery at Kiliwani North by 10%.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is appraising a E150m ($204m) loan to the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (Masen) for the third phase of the Ouarzazate solar power complex. The loan, under appraisal since 18 June, will help fund the construction and operation of a 150MW concentrated solar power plant with a total cost of E850m. The third phase will consist of a tower plant with three hours’ solar energy storage capacity. The loan is the EIB’s third for the project. Last December, the EIB approved a E250m loan to Masen for the construction and operation of a 200MW concentrated solar power parabolic plant, representing the second phase, whose total cost is estimated at E1.06bn.

As Mozambique chalks up ever greater gas reserves, hopes are rising that the southern Rovuma Basin may also contain oil. Total has taken 40% in Petronas’ Areas 3 and 6, after Tullow Oil took 25% in Statoil’s Areas 2 and 5, specifically to look for oil.

The government published oil sales figures on 23 July showing that its share of marketed oil was 1m barrels in June, 2.2m barrels in July and a projected 3.2m barrels in August. Assuming an average government share in sales of 60%, that puts total sales at an average of about 55,000 b/d in June, 118,000 b/d in July and 172,000 b/d in August. The pipeline shutdown will not affect August oil sales because the linefill will be sufficient to meet commitments.

Sonatrach is in crisis, with the authorities investigating corruption allegations against chief executive Mohammed Meziane and other senior managers. Fortunately, big decisions have already been made on a number of major gas schemes, writes a Special Correspondent

South Sudan President Salva Kiir has shaken up the board of directors at state oil company Nilepet in a move that reinforces his personal influence over the company. Kiir issued a presidential decree in August making several new appointments to the board, including reinstating Benjamin Bol Mel, a business partner of the president, promoting current managing director Joseph Cleto Deng, Kiir’s former office manager, and appointing General Akol Kur Kuch, currently national security director.

Jon Marks reports from Kinshasa that major new power projects and an oil and gas licensing round are planned, but investors will need watertight guarantees to persuade them Congo really is open for business

A consortium of InfraCo Africa and Smart Energies International signed a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) on 9 August with the Ministry of Energy and Société Nationale d’Electricité (SNE) for the 60MWp Djermaya Solar project. “The PPA marks a key milestone in the development of Djermaya Solar, enabling the project to raise construction financing and demonstrating the joint commitment of all parties to developing renewable energy in Chad,” InfraCo said.

Violent protests have again broken out in Conakry over power cuts as the government struggles to fund badly needed repairs to generation and transmission infrastructure. State utility Electricité de Guinée (EDG) said the latest problems were caused by damage to one of Conakry’s main transformer substations, which had led to power cuts in 13, mainly outlying, districts of the capital. “This transformer is a transformer substation. It’s different from the little distribution transformers situated in the districts whose capacity is no greater than 160kVA,” an EDG official explained.

The government is inviting expressions of interest for a contract for a study of the potential for using liquefied natural gas as part of Kenya’s thermal power mix. The study, to be part-financed by the World Bank, forms part of the Energy Sector Recovery Project.

The Ministry of Energy and Minerals of the breakaway Republic of Somaliland announced on 19 November that it had signed a contract with BGP for a multi-client 2D seismic survey in the territory’s offshore waters. The programme will be financed through data purchases by international oil companies operating in Somaliland, the ministry said. Seismic operations will be managed and overseen by the ministry, with support from ministries such as the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Environment. A similar survey was acquired by TGS-Nopec in 2008.

Finland’s Wärtsilä announced on 25 April that it had signed a contract to engineer, manufacture and deliver the 130MW Malicounda thermal plant at Mbour. The plant will comprise seven Wärtsilä 50 engines initially running on heavy fuel oil, with the option of converting to gas if it becomes available. Commercial operation is expected in 2020. The project will be owned by Melec PowerGen on a build, own, operate, transfer basis, with Lebanon’s Matelec as engineering, procurement and construction contractor.

The federal government on 26 April approved more appointments at the top of the oil industry, with further changes in the senior managements of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), several of its subsidiaries and the government's Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).