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Australia Securities Exchange (ASX)-listed Leo Lithium has produced its first direct shipping ore (DSO) from its Goulamina lithium joint venture with China’s Ganfeng Lithium Group.

United States-based independent Murphy Oil signed production-sharing contracts (PSC) for five offshore Côte d’Ivoire blocks in late June, affirming a renewed industry interest in West African oil and gas licences.

Lagos-headquartered multilateral the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) has set out its stall as a financier and partner for the continent’s energy transition, with a strategy to support renewable energy and critical minerals projects around the continent, as well as the development of battery manufacturing supply chains. The AFC also plans to continue supporting short- to medium-term energy needs by backing upstream and midstream gas projects and gas-to-power (GTP) developments. Marc Howard spoke to AFC executive director and chief investment officer Sameh Shenouda during the recent Africa Energy Forum in Nairobi.

The International Monetary Fund has trimmed its economic growth expectations for sub-Saharan Africa in its latest World Economic Outlook to 3.6% for 2023. Low-income countries are expected to outperform most of their richer neighbours, but some analysts have warned the IMF is being overly optimistic.

 London-listed Tullow Oil reported a rise in revenues and profits in its full-year results issued in early March and sought to focus attention on its prospects in Ghana and Kenya instead of its high levels of debt and ongoing litigation issues. African Energy takes a closer look at Tullow’s prospects for 2023 and beyond.

United Arab Emirates state-owned Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar) has signed a framework agreement with Côte d’Ivoire’s Ministry of Mining, Petroleum and Energy to explore the potential for solar PV plants.

West Africa’s total installed generation capacity could reach 43GW by 2027 from 31GW at end-2021, according to African Energy Live Data’s latest analysis, with thermal, hydropower and other renewable projects lining up. But many of these capacity additions are planned for Nigeria, where results may be patchy, as it is already hard to dispatch power from existing plants to an inadequate grid.

Amea Power executive chairman and founder Hussain Al-Nowais in late February provided a detailed insight into 11 of the Dubai-based developer’s projects under development in African markets.

Bamako-headquartered SolarX said on 1 March it had signed 15-year deals with Orange Côte d’Ivoire to install approximately 1MWp of aggregated solar PV capacity at two of its data centres, in Yamoussoukro in Côte d’Ivoire (CdI) and Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. African Energy spoke to SolarX chief executive Karim Ghammache.

The 44MW Singrobo-Ahouaty hydroelectric power (HEP) plant reached a €174.3m ($183.4m) financial close in December according to a statement by mandated lead arranger African Development Bank (AfDB).

Glencore received the ‘highest ever fines and costs ordered in a British corporate criminal conviction’, the UK’s Serious Fraud Office said after a London court found the resources giant guilty of graft – in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria – and of ‘failures to prevent bribery’ in Equatorial Guinea and South Sudan in 2011-14. Chastened once more after its practises were reported in eye-watering legal detail, Glencore has embarked on “an extensive programme of corporate reform”.

Construction has begun on Endeavour Mining’s $448m Lafigué gold project in Côte d'Ivoire’s Hambol region. The London-and-Toronto listed miner owns 80% of the project, with the remaining 20% split equally between the state and the parastatal Société pour le Développement Minier de la Côte d'Ivoire (Sodemi).

Just over a year after Eni announced the major Baleine offshore oil discovery momentum still appears to be strong in Côte d’Ivoire's upstream sector.

Norway’s DNO has bought Mondoil Enterprises from United Arab Emirates-based RAK Petroleum. Mondoil Enterprises holds a 33.3% stake in Foxtrot International, which has interests in offshore gas and associated liquids in Côte d'Ivoire.

The Sahel region’s multi-faceted crises have deepened further with junior officers replacing their seniors in Burkina Faso’s latest coup d’état, a move which now threatens sanctions and other retaliation from Ecowas states, increases diplomatic tensions with western governments – while Russia helps to fan the flames – and undermines business initiatives and efforts to make economies more sustainable. African Energy analyses the latest developments in Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea and Mali, along with their G5 Sahel partner Niger and other big stakeholders in the region.