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Golar LNG Ltd said on 28 February that first liquefied natural gas (LNG) production from the floating LNG vessel Hilli Episeyo “is expected to commence in the coming days”. Announcing its 2017 results, Golar said the vessel arrived in Cameroon in late November and customs clearance, positioning, mooring hook-up and connection to the riser and umbilicals followed. In early December, a Notice of Readiness triggering the commissioning process was tendered to upstream operator Perenco and state oil and gas company Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures.

Jersey-registered New Age (African Global Energy) has contracted the Topaz Driller jack-up rig from Vantage Drilling for appraisal wells on the Etinde licence. The rig has been contracted for 150 days. Planning for the appraisal wells is ongoing and partner Bowleven said it expected the IM-6 well to spud during Q2 2018 to test the potential of the Intra Isongo play opened by the IM-5 well.

Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SNH) launched a licensing round on 15 January for eight open blocks. The blocks on offer are Bomana, Bolongo Exploration and Bakassi in the Rio del Rey Basin, and Etinde Exploration, Ntem, Elombo, Tilapia and Kombe-Nsepe in the Douala/Kribi-Campo Basin.French geoscience services company CGG has an agreement with SNH to promote data packages for the round. Roadshows will be held in London from 28 February to 2 March, and in Houston from 7 to 9 March, with the participation of specialists from SNH and CGG.

Victoria Oil and Gas (VOG) announced on 5 January that its gas supply agreement with electricity distribution company Eneo Cameroon – a joint venture between private equity firm Actis, which has owned 56% of the company since 2014, and the Cameroonian government – has not been renewed. VOG subsidiary Gaz du Cameroun (GDC) was supplying 3-9mcf/d, 6mcf/d on average, accounting for around 53% of VOG’s production at Logbaba. Eneo owes GDC around $8.7m.

President Paul Biya has given the go-ahead for China National Machinery Industry Corporation (Sinomach) to develop the 940MW Lebanga hydropower scheme on the Sanaga River, according to Cameroonian newspaper Essingan. The paper said Presidency secretary-general Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh had written to minister of water and energy Basile Atangana Kouna to give the president’s approval for the signing of a contract with Sinomach to carry out studies of the site.

Tower Resources has given DMT Petrologic a contract to reprocess the 3D seismic data over and around the Thali licence in the Rio del Rey Basin. The contract, awarded following a competitive tender, involves merging and reprocessing data from five existing surveys to cover an area of approximately 500km2, including the entire Thali Block and the surrounding area, covering three discovery wells on the block itself and additional key wells to provide further data control.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) said on 29 November that its board of directors had approved a loan of €150m ($177m) to help finance the 420MW Nachtigal hydroelectric project. Nachtigal will come online in 2022, increasing Cameroon’s installed capacity by 30% and helping to lower the cost of electricity.

Italian solar company Enerray has announced plans to develop a 30MW photovoltaic (PV) project at a site close to the Garoua International Airport. The project will be developed through EB Solaire, a partnership with a local company, with Enerray to act as the engineering, procurement and construction contractor. Initial permits for the greenfield project have been secured, and the Cameroon authorities have approved the 70-hectare site identified by the company for the PV array. Enerray is owned by Gruppo Maccaferri through the holding company Seci Holding.

France’s Eranove Group in partnership with Gabon’s state investment fund, Le Fonds Gabonais d’Investissements Stratégiques (FGIS), has tendered environmental and social impact assessments for two hydropower projects totalling nearly 90MW. Expressions of interest were invited by 25 October.

Golar LNG Limited has announced that the Hilli Episeyo floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) vessel departed Keppel Shipyard on 1 October. Following mechanical completion, the vessel has been moved to deep-water anchorage where Keppel Shipyard will complete final marine commissioning. Hilli Episeyo is expected to leave Singapore between 15 and 20 October and will be deployed offshore Kribi for Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SNH) and Perenco as the first FLNG project in Africa.

Power sector regulator Agence de Régulation du Sécteur de l’Electricité (Arsel) seeks to create a shortlist of potential operators of the 2.9MW Falls 210 hydropower plant in the Mbonge district, Mémé department, in the south-west of the country.

London-based Victoria Oil & Gas (VOG) has found more gas in the La-107 well on its Logbaba concession in Douala. The company said drilling had taken longer than expected due to a technical problem with the previous La-108 well, but completion, flow testing and network supply input was scheduled for Q3 2017. La-107, which is a twin of the Serepca La-104 well drilled in 1957, has so far encountered 35 metres of high permeability, high porosity gas-bearing sands in the Upper Logbaba formation, slightly more than expected based on the logs for La-104.

The governments of Equatorial Guinea (EG) and Cameroon signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on 10 July paving the way for joint development of Noble Energy’s Yolanda discovery in EG Block I and Yoyo discovery offshore Cameroon. The company told African Energy the MoU stated that the two discoveries were in a contiguous reservoir that would be jointly developed as the Yoyo-Yolanda condensate gas field and operated by Noble Energy.“The MoU signifies a commitment from both countries to work together to develop the Yoyo-Yolanda condensate gas field,” Noble said.

Cameroon officially launched the construction works for the 30MW Lom Pangar hydroelectric project on 17 July, with the laying of the foundation stone by African Development Bank (AfDB) president Akinwumi Adesina. The $70m project, which is being developed by the Electricity Development Corporation with co-financing from the AfDB, the Agence Française de Développement, the World Bank, the Development Bank of the Central African States and the European Investment Bank, in the eastern département of Lom-et-Djerem, is expected to be completed within 30 months.

Cameroonian company Nyong Power Plant Corporation (NPPC) signed a framework agreement with the government on 1 June in Yaoundé to produce 250MW of electricity from the Song-Mbong/Kelempeck hydro project on the Nyong River. The project company is backed by Swiss developer Hydro Operation International and French financial consultancy Finergreen. The CFA560bn ($958m) project, to be built on a build-operate-transfer basis, will involve a reservoir with 3.5bcm of storage capacity, and a transmission line to connect to the grid.