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Petroleum Agency SA formally launched its fourth offshore licensing round on 15 March offering two previously unexplored areas (AE 157/17).

Private equity investment company Kingdom Zephyr Africa Management Company has completed a $20m investment in South African power infrastructure and heavy building materials company Buildworks.

PetroSA is confident that its planned new $11bn oil refinery at Coega in Eastern Cape Province will go into operation processing 400,000 b/d of crude from 2014. But the refinery still has major question marks hanging over it, particularly its cost and the lack of an equity partner to help develop the project and supply crude.

South Africa’s first private equity clean energy fund, the Evolution One Fund, raised $56m from offshore investors in 2008 and says it is now seeking projects to invest in.

Despite cutting back on more ambitious plans for a nuclear power plant, Eskom is planning two new coal-fired power stations to meet medium-term growth in South African electricity demand

The Petroleum Agency of South Africa (PASA) is offering acreage in the Orange Basin Deep Water Area, off the west coast, and the Tugela licence area, off the east coast, in a licensing round aimed at kick-starting long delayed deep-water exploration.

ABB has won an order worth $53m from Eskom to strengthen the transmission network in the Western Cape region. ABB will design, manufacture, install and commission six 765kV capacitor banks at the Alpha, Beta, Mercury and Perseus substations.

Eskom announced on 19 January that construction of its 1,520MW Lima pumped storage hydropower project would be delayed as a result of the global economic crisis, which has seen Eskom revise its supply and demand projections in line with lower projected growth – not to mention problems securing finance (AE 154/6).

Until now, donor funding for the South African energy sector has focused on smaller, alternative energy projects. The European Investment Bank (EIB) has just announced that it is to provide

Critics within the industry say South Africa still lacks a coherent strategy for its electricity supply industry more than ten years after the Energy White Paper’s publication.

Eskom awarded a R2.9bn ($313m) contract to a local joint venture for the main civil works package at the new Kusile Power Station in Emalahleni, Mpumalanga Province. The order was awarded to Kusile Civil Works Joint Venture, comprising Basil Read (Pty) Ltd, Group Five Construction (Pty) Ltd, Stefanutti Stocks Civils (Pty) Ltd and WBHO Construction (Pty) Ltd.

Sasol Technology has given KBR two contracts to provide engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCm) services, and basic engineering services for two of its petrochemical projects in Sasolburg.

PetroSA has given KBR a contract to provide feasibility and front-end engineering and design (FEED) study services for its proposed 400,000 b/d Coega refinery known as Project Mthombo. KBR said it would work with PetroSA “to provide a sustainable and commercially viable solution to the liquid fuels supply challenges faced in South Africa”.

South Africa-based Engen Petroleum has completed the purchase of Total’s downstream operations in Guinea Bissau, Rwanda and Burundi. The agreement, signed on 31 July in Paris and effective from 19 November, sees Engen take over Total’s shareholding in Total Rwanda and in Total Burundi.

Denham Capital, a US-based, energy and commodities-focused private equity firm, plans to invest up to $150m in Johannesburg-based BioTherm Energy, which develops, acquires, owns and operates waste to energy, renewable energy and energy efficiency projects in the 5MW-100MW range.