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Local conglomerate PFO Africa has signed a PPA for Côte d’Ivoire’s largest-ever solar development, near the northern city of Ferkessédougou.

An oversubscribed Eurobond issue in January indicated that Côte d’Ivoire’s strong economic performance – including 6.5% GDP growth, big infrastructure investments and Eni’s major Baleine oil and gas field – has been enough to allay investors’ concerns over the presidential succession and wider regional instability. These issues feature in the first of African Energy’s new series of Risk Management Reports (RMRs), which will provide updates, analysis and context on key political, social, economic and energy trends in countries across the continent. In line with the model established by African Energy’s sister publication Gulf States Newsletter (GSN), a ‘risk grade’ (explained below) is assigned to each country. A full list of African risk grades will follow soon.

Côte d’Ivoire’s three times oversubscribed $2.6bn dollar Eurobond issue underlines President Alassane Dramane Ouattara’s reputation for prudent economic management – a status that will add to pressures from supporters for ‘ADO’ to stand for a controversial fourth term – and offers some hope for under-pressure African borrowers who could benefit from renewed access to international capital markets and the relatively attractive interest rates CdI has secured.

UAE-based players have used COP28 to commit – and recommit – to projects that could supply over 12GW of renewables capacity across Africa. Emiratis argue this displays a willingness to push projects forward and shoulder risk, while others have failed to deliver – and if critics complain they are also prominent in the oil lobby, Abu Dhabi can counter that the UAE has assumed a leading role in enabling Africa’s energy transition.

Italian major Eni has said it is pumping 8,000 b/d more than forecast at its Baleine project offshore Côte d'Ivoire, with output exceeding 20,000 b/d, compared to initial predictions of 12,000 b/d.

Houston-based Murphy Oil has said it will sell some non-core assets in North America to fund work on the Paon discovery in Block CI-103, one of five Côte d’Ivoire offshore blocks it picked up in June 2023.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF) are anchor investors in a bond issue intended to support a government-led programme to connect more low-income households to the national grid.

The United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) has signed a grant agreement with Washington, DC-headquartered Ecostar Energy’s Ivorian subsidiary to provide technical assistance for its biomass plant in the northern Boundiali department.

Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) has requested expressions of interest (EoI) for a project supervising engineer consultancy for the Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea Rural Electrification Project (CLSG-RE).

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on 4 October it had reached an agreement with Côte d’Ivoire (CdI) to release a further $500m in financial support, following a review of its economic reform programme. 

French geoscience firm CGG has started a 3D reimaging programme in the offshore Tano Basin, close to the deep-water Baleine field where Italian major Eni recently started production.

Italian major Eni has achieved a time-to-market of under two years, with first production announced from its Baleine (Whale) field, offshore Côte d’Ivoire (CdI). The project has been presented as the first emissions-free Scope-1 and -2 upstream production project in Africa, as well as CdI’s largest ever hydrocarbons discovery.

London- and Toronto-listed Endeavour Mining has started construction of a 37MWp solar PV plant, with 16MW of storage, at Senegal’s largest gold mine, as it further develops the Sabodala-Massawa resource. The West Africa-focused miner also reports progress on its 225kV transmission line in Côte d’Ivoire

Financial close for Biovea’s 45MW Ayébo plant in Côte d’Ivoire could prove a milestone as potential investors investigate whether utility-scale biomass is bankable in countries with large agro-industries. Biomass has appeal – providing dispatchable baseload electricity while potentially sustaining a large number of jobs – but there have been false dawns before and hurdles remain for developers, not least sourcing sufficient feedstock, writes Marc Howard.

Most big oil companies reported a sharp falls in profits in Q2 2023, but Africa still figures prominently in results and future plans – and where it doesn’t majors are able to divest at least some of their more attractive assets.