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Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) has signed a contract worth $98m with China’s TBEA Contractor Limited for the Bole Lemi and Kilinto Industry Zone power transmission project. The project aims to meet demand from industrial parks, new housing and other developments in the Koye Abo, Koye-Fitche, Kilinto and Bole Lemi areas of Addis Ababa. EEP chief executive Azeb Asnake said the contract consisted of two packages of substations and transmission lines.

Tribal rights NGO Survival International has lodged a complaint with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) against Italian company Salini Impregilo, which is building the 1,870MW Gilgel Gibe III dam on the Omo River in Ethiopia. The complaint was filed under the 2011 OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, to which Salini is a signatory.

Finland’s Valoe Corporation has announced a €15.8m ($17.3m) order for a solar module manufacturing plant, part funded by the Development Bank of Ethiopia. Some €9.5m of the sale price will be paid in cash, while Valoe will take a 30% share in the Ethiopian manufacturing partner to cover the balance. Valoe said the plant was expected to be delivered to Ethiopia later this year.

Consultancy Turner & Townsend has won a contract to project manage the construction of a 550km pipeline to carry jet fuel, diesel and gasoline from the port of Djibouti to central Ethiopia. Known as the Horn of Africa Pipeline, it will cost $1.55bn to build and is being developed by Black Rhino MOGS, a joint venture between Blackstone Group-backed infrastructure investment company Black Rhino Group and South Africa’s Mining, Oil & Gas Services Ltd, part of Royal Bafokeng Holdings.

Djibouti President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh on 3 March presided over a foundation stone-laying ceremony for a gas pipeline, liquefaction plant and export terminal at Damerjog to enable Ethiopia to export gas to China. An official statement said the new 700km pipeline will transport up to 12bcm/yr of natural gas from Ethiopia to Djibouti. The liquefaction plant will have capacity to produce up to 10m t/yr of liquefied natural gas.

Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) has invited expressions of interest for a developer or developer consortium to carry out studies, design, build, operate and own a solar project to sell electricity to EEP under a long-term power purchase agreement. The project is located at Metehara, 130km east of Addis Ababa, at an altitude of 910-920 metres, near the main local highway and with “good proximity” to the transmission grid. Prequalification criteria include having worked on at least two minimum 20MW solar IPPs, with at least one in commercial operation. Bidders must show they have strong credit backing, and can directly or indirectly arrange financing and security.

Persistent blackouts in Addis Ababa and other urban centres in Africa’s second most populous country are a reminder of its vulnerability to drought. But Ethiopian officials who spoke to African Energy at locations across the country anticipated major improvements to hydropower generation in coming months. A minimum two turbines of the 6GW Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd) will be operational by end-2016, Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) chief executive Azeb Asnake told African Energy on 26 February.

Africa Oil Corporation has completed the farmout of stakes in the South Omo and Rift Basin blocks and received a completion payment of $12.8m from Maersk Oil. Maersk has taken 25% in the Rift Basin Block, alongside Africa Oil, which remains as operator with 25%, and Marathon with 50%. In South Omo, Tullow Oil is operator with 50%, while Maersk has taken 15%, Africa Oil retains 15% and Marathon has 20%. Maersk also agreed in November to take 25% in Kenya blocks 10BB, 13T and 10BA, in a deal totalling upto $845m.

The governments of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan signed an agreement in Khartoum on 29 December for French firms Artelia and BRL to study the potential impact of Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance Dam on the flow of the Nile River. Technical studies are due to start in February, and will take 6-15 months to complete, according to Sudanese officials. The dam is already under construction by Italy’s Salini, but Ethiopia has said it will not divert any water from the Nile into the dam’s reservoir until the studies are complete.

Reykjavik Geothermal has signed a financing agreement with the African Union Commission for a $1.3m grant from the Geothermal Risk Mitigation Facility (GRMF) to conduct surface studies at the Tulu Moye geothermal prospect. Tulu Moye covers a total area of around 200km2 with a core target area of 100km2 centred on the Tulu Moye volcano, 100km south of Addis Ababa. It is one of three prospects for which the company holds exploration licences in Ethiopia, along with Corbetti and Abaya, and will be developed as an independent power producer project.

Having emerged from its elections in May – the first since the death of prime minister Meles Zenawi, who dominated its politics in the last two decades – and with the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front remaining intact amid some cautious generational change, Ethiopia’s leadership is determined to accelerate openings to investment and consolidate the country’s position as the political and economic dominant force in the Horn of Africa. Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn has surprised some observers by reinforcing his position at home, continuing the Meles legacy but in his own style; his government will continue to promote the ‘developmental state’ policies that have delivered 10%-plus annual growth in the last decade, to drive Ethiopia towards middle income status by 2025.

The Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) and Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco) on 26 October signed a contract with Germany’s Siemens and Spain’s Isolux Corsan to design, build and install equipment for converter stations as part of the $1.3bn project to connect the countries’ grids. The 1,000km 500kV direct current transmission line will connect converter stations at Suswa in Kenya and Sodo in Ethiopia, providing transfer capacity of 2,000MW which will flow in both directions. The transmission line on the Ethiopian side of the border is being built by China Electric Power Equipment and Technology Company through a $119m contract signed in June.

Delonex Energy has taken over Marathon Oil’s assets in Ethiopia and Kenya, as well as winning an onshore block in Mozambique’s licensing round. The Kenya assets consist of a 50% non-operated working interest in Africa Oil Corporation’s Block 9, and a 15% non-operated working interest in Tullow Oil’s Block 12A, where the Cheptuket well is planned to test the Kerio Valley Basin. In Ethiopia, Delonex has acquired 50% in Africa Oil’s Rift Basin area and 20% in Tullow’s South Omo Block. Marathon put the assets up for sale in May.

The governments of Ethiopia and Djibouti have signed framework agreements for a 1.55bn, 550km pipeline to transport diesel, gasoline and jet fuel. The agreements were signed with Mining, Oil & Gas Services (MOGS), part of South Africa’s Royal Bafokeng Holdings, and Blackstone Group-backed Black Rhino Group. Financial close is expected in 2016, with construction scheduled for completion two years later.

Ethiopian Electric Power has given China Electric Power Equipment and Technology Company a contract to build the Ethiopian stretch of the Ethiopia-Kenya interconnection. The contract, which was signed on 19 June and is valued at around $119m, will involve the installation of a 433km, 500kV line from Wolayita Sodo to the Kenya border, and work is expected to take 26 months, Ethiopian Electric Power chief executive Azeb Asnake said at the signing ceremony. The Ethiopian part of the interconnector is to be financed entirely by the African Development Bank (AfDB).