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Sub-Saharan Africa’s first gigawatt-scale green hydrogen (GH2) facility is expected to enter a new phase soon African Energy's AIX: Power and Renewables 2022 meeting was told. South Africa's 900,000 t/yr Coega green ammonia plant, being developed by the UK’s Hive Energy and Germany’s Linde, is expected to sign a 20-year offtake agreement imminently with a major anchor client.

TotalEnergies is planning fresh drilling activities in the Namibian and South African portions of the Orange basin in 2024, with a multi-well wildcat campaign lined up for South African waters and an appraisal well targeting a western extension of its Venus oil and gas discovery offshore Namibia.

Eco Atlantic Oil & Gas has announced that it has not found evidence of commercial hydrocarbons at its Gazania-1 well on offshore Block 2B. The failure to encounter a commercial play so close to the Venus and Graff discoveries will disappoint South Africans hoping for exploration successes in the Orange Basin.

Finance minister Enoch Godongwana’s medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS) on 26 October gave further indications of the government’s plans for “emergency measures” to address the costs of an electricity crisis that has plagued the country since 2017.

Ratings agency Moody’s gave a positive response after the government said it would assume up to two-thirds of troubled Eskom’s debts, but several bailouts have failed in the past and there are doubts about the latest plan’s likelihood of success in meeting the ultimate goal of creating a sustainable utility.

Coal remains king in a number of African markets – led by Morocco and South Africa, which usually prefer to tout their credentials as champions of renewable energy. Coal generation is set to peak in 2024, as Live Data shows some 2.7GW of new capacity being added in parallel to planned decommissioning. Given its role in providing baseload, coal is not going away in economies that have come to depend on the combustible, controversial fuel.

Eskom’s coal-fired Komati power station was shut at the end of October, having reached the end of its life. Commissioned in March 1966, it was the last of the site’s nine units to be operating. Located 37km from Middelburg in Mpumalanga province, Komati had served South Africa since 1961.

President Cyril Ramaphosa made a pitch for South Africa to be included in Saudi Arabia’s green hydrogen (GH2) plans during a recent visit to the Gulf country. The president noted that South Africa is the world’s largest producer of platinum, a key input in hydrogen fuel cell technology, and is developing a ‘hydrogen valley’.

Germany’s commitment of ZAR6.2bn towards South Africa’s Just Energy Partnership (JETP) is assisting government efforts to approve a detailed investment plan in time for COP27.

Mining giant Anglo American (Anglo) and France’s EDF Renewables (EDF) have formed a joint venture company Envusa Energy (Envusa) that will develop renewable energy projects to meet Anglo’s energy needs in South Africa, with excess power supplied into the grid.

The appointment of a new board of directors for struggling state power utility Eskom has been greeted by a mix of optimism and scepticism. Organisations like the Black Business Council have called for the board to dismiss chief executive Andre de Ruyter, a man it blames for the blackouts.

Sandton-based Renewable Africa Energy (Revego) has acquired an unspecified minority equity interest in three South African solar photovoltaic (PV) projects from Izingwe International Fund (IIF), in a purchase by its Revego Africa Energy Fund.

South Africa has many problems, stemming from the enduring legacies of apartheid and the fallout of more recent misrule, but could it be load-shedding and the perpetual crisis at state utility Eskom that finally ends the African National Congress (ANC)’s control of the state?

Uganda is planning an oil licensing round in 2023, as it seeks to develop its petroleum sector, mineral development and energy minister Ruth Nankabirwa Ssentamu told an oil and gas conference in Kampala on 27 September. African Energy examines this news and provides a roundup of other bid rounds across Africa.

President Cyril Ramaphosa is once again promising strong action to deal with South Africa’s electricity supply crisis, with new appointments expected at the beleaguered state utility Eskom to reinvigorate the board. Among the changes that have been mooted is replacing chief executive André de Ruyter, although that has yet to be confirmed. Measures to increase generation and ease load shedding that were announced by the president in July are also now being implemented at pace.