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ExxonMobil has announced the start of oil production from the deep-water Erha North Phase 2 project. Erha North Phase 2 lies 60 miles offshore in 1,000 metres of water, four miles north of the Erha field, which has been producing since 2006. The project includes seven wells from three drill centres tied back to the existing Erha North floating production, storage and offloading vessel. The project is expected to develop an additional 165m barrels from the Erha North field. Peak production from the expansion is estimated at 65,000 b/d and will increase total Erha North field production to approximately 90,000 b/d.

Sonatrach has given Amec Foster Wheeler a front-end engineering design (FEED) contract for three new refineries located in Biskra, Tiaret and Hassi Messaoud. The three refineries will each have a capacity of 5m t/yr of Algerian crude oil and contain facilities for atmospheric distillation, liquefied petroleum gas separation, hydrocrackers, desulphurisation, bitumen production, utilities, blending, effluents treatment, control room and laboratories. The Biskra site will include lubrication oil facilities.

Critical non-governmental organisations in Addis Ababa at the third International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD3), or commenting from the sidelines, contested United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon’s assertion that the mid-July summit was a “critical step forward” in creating a global architecture to pull poorer economies out of poverty. Some critics remain uncomfortable that development finance initiatives generate profits, while FfD3 failed to pressurise wealthy economies into paying more.

Australian companies Pancontinental Oil & Gas and FAR Limited have agreed to settle their long-running dispute over Kenya Block L6 and relinquish the licence. Pancontinental said it would make a payment of $150,000 in settlement of outstanding cash calls. The partners will then start the process of withdrawing from the block. Pancontinental said it had received default notices totalling $567,145.80 this year. The company has disputed the amounts since 2015, arguing that no exploration was taking place on the block.

Aker Solutions Singapore Pte has signed a two-year frame agreement with Badr El Din Petroleum Company (Bapetco) to be the sole supplier for its surface wellhead equipment, installation and lifecycle services operations in the Western Desert; Houston-based Hyperdynamics Corporation on 18 April announced it had engaged BofA Merrill Lynch as financial adviser to assist with the potential sale of a portion of its 77% interest in its 25,000km2 exploration concession offshore Guinea; French major Total on 12 April announced that it had decided not to proceed with an offer for London AIM-listed Wessex Exploration

CrossBoundary Energy Access (CBEA) has announced a debut transaction that will see 60 mini-grids providing power to 34,000 rural households and businesses developed in Tanzania. The deal is the first project financing for a mini-grid, according to CBEA, part of the CrossBoundary Group, which is partnering with PowerGen Renewable Energy for the project. PowerGen was founded in 2011 and has built mini-grids serving more than 50,000 people.CBEA, which describes itself as the first project financing facility for mini-grids, started up this year with $16m of funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and family office Ceniarth LLC.

Australia’s FAR has challenged ConocoPhillips’ sale of its Senegal assets to Woodside Petroleum, but has not yet made its own intentions clear. FAR said on 23 August that there should be a pre-emption period for the sale, but Woodside argues this does not apply because it is buying a ConocoPhillips subsidiary, rather than buying the assets directly. FAR also announced an increase in contingent recoverable oil reserves to 641m barrels, from a new estimate including results from the BEL-1 and SNE-4 wells.

GE and consortium partner Cegelec of France have won a 25-month contract worth more than E200m ($264m) to supply fuel-flexible gas turbines for the 300MW Kenitra power plant. They will supply three GE Frame 9E gas turbines that burn heavy fuel oil (HFO) with distillate as a back-up.

Despite the disappointment of Chinguetti, International oil companies are looking again at Mauritania, where Dana Petroleum and Petronas plan to drill this year. Tullow Oil exploration director Angus McCoss told African Energy that Mauritania had been “off the industry radar screen for a couple of years, which has given Tullow a great opportunity to do a regional geological review of the plays that may exist in that area”. Previous exploration led by Australia’s Woodside drilled down into the Miocene, finding the Chinguetti field, which causes great initial excitement but then proved geologically complex and expensive to develop.

The World Bank is seeking expressions of interest from consultants to develop a power master plan study for Somalia, and the autonomous territories of Puntland and Somaliland. The work is funded with a grant from the Africa Renewable Energy Access trust fund. The project involves producing regionally based power master plans covering Somalia, Puntland and Somaliland, with work to take up to 24 months. This will include mapping the existing electricity sector in the three territories, to establish the number of customers.

It may be symbolic that, beyond the state-run grid, Tanzania provides an enticing opportunity for innovative investors to build businesses in marginalised communities with aspirations to move beyond energy poverty. Tanzania has been a pioneer in the sub-Saharan off-grid revolution, where mini-grid operator Jumeme and other innovators have been able to build their businesses. Germany’s Redavia last year began operating its first two mini-grids, supported by InfraCo Africa.

Rwanda is relying on up to five key projects to meet its target of 556MW generation capacity by 2024. In an interview with African Energy, Rwanda Energy Group chief executive Ron Weiss said the new target was in line with government plans to increase electricity access to 100% by 2024. As of February 2019, 51% of households had access to power (37% of households are connected to the grid, while 14% are connected to off-grid systems).

Least known among ERHC Energy’s new Chadian blocks is Manga, located north of Lake Chad, along the border with Niger. This is among several unfashionable locations in the region attracting renewed interest as frontier explorers look to diversify and governments look to book new reserves and appease populations in marginal areas

South African utility Eskom has signed a five-year deal to supply 200MW to Namibia Power Corporation (NamPower). Eskom told African Energy the 200MW would be supplied on a firm basis, with additional capacity supplied as required a day ahead. South Africa has traditionally been a major exporter of power to Namibia and, although the latter is expected to boost its generation with 70MW of solar and wind power by mid-2017, demand still vastly outstrips supply.

The Algerian corruption crisis took a decisive turn in early May when a criminal court in Oran sentenced former Sonatrach president director-general (PDG) Mohammed Meziane to two years jail for embezzlement, while his interim successor, former downstream vice president Abdelhafid Feghouli, received a one-year term.