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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.

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).

Marathon Oil Corporation is looking for buyers for its East African onshore assets. The company, which is refocusing its global exploration and production programme, plans to open an online data room on 29 May with Schlumberger’s Indigopool.com portal, and is seeking bids for the entire portfolio or any combination of the four blocks. The Ethiopian assets comprise 50% in Africa Oil Corporation’s Rift Basin Area and 20% in Tullow Oil’s South Omo Block. The Kenyan assets consist of 50% in Africa Oil’s Block 9, and 15% in Tullow’s Block 12A.

Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Ethiopian prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn and Sudanese president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir on 23 March signed a declaration of principles intended to help resolve the longstanding dispute over the 6,000MW Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd). The ten principles, which were published in full on the Egyptian Ahram Online website, recognise the dam as a primarily hydroelectric facility and refer to areas such as compensation, fair and appropriate use of water resources and the filling and operation of the dam. Downstream countries Egypt and Sudan were granted priority access to electricity generated by the facility.

Minister for water, irrigation and energy Alemayehu Tegenu has announced that Ethiopian Electric Power will begin generating power from its controversial 1,870MW Gibe III dam in H2 this year as long as the annual wet season sufficiently fills its 11.8bcm reservoir. The dam, which at 243 metres is Africa’s tallest, will begin producing 187MW from one of its ten turbines, with the intention of starting up an additional turbine each month thereafter.

Several days of negotiations in Khartoum between the foreign and water ministers of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan culminated in an announcement on 6 March of an agreement on the filling, operation and impact of the giant 6,000MW Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd), which is being built on the Blue Nile. Details of the agreement have yet to be disclosed, and this is unlikely before it has been ratified by heads of state. However, the agreement was hailed as “the beginning of more co-operation between our three countries” by Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukri, “a new path in the relations of our three countries” by Sudanese foreign minister Ali Karti, and “a new chapter” by Ethiopian foreign minister Tedros Adhanom.

US strategic consultancy Détente Group has signed agreements with the Ethiopian government to manage development of the country’s wind energy potential with support from President Barack Obama’s Power Africa Initiative. Détente managing partner Brien Morgan told African Energy that, based on the support received from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (US Ex-Im Bank), the Department of Commerce’s Export Assistance Center, and a 25 September meeting between Obama and Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the government of Ethiopia has pledged to source the entire programme from the US renewable energy industry.

Italy’s ELC Electroconsult has been awarded a $499,000 contract for geothermal surface exploration in the Aluto Langano region. The contract, signed on 7 January, forms part of a geothermal exploration project established by the Icelandic International Development Agency (Iceida) and the Nordic Development Fund (NDF). A 7.3MWe plant at Aluto Langano was launched in 1998 as a pilot scheme, and the area is considered to have considerable additional potential. Iceida signed a partnership agreement with the government in September 2013 for geothermal surface exploration and capacity building for geothermal development.

Tendering is under way for the provision and commissioning of four sets of geothermal single flow back pressure units for the 20MW first phase of the Corbetti geothermal power project. Berkeley Energy has announced that a ten-week tender process began on 12 January and will be concluded in March. Berkeley manages the $200m Africa Renewable Energy Fund (AREF), which is expected to close in Q1 2015. AREF has acquired a majority stake in the Corbetti project, whose other investors are Iceland Drilling and Reykjavik Geothermal.

The success of Ethiopia’s $1bn, ten-year sovereign bond issue, to provide hard currency to finance infrastructure investment, has chalked up another significant triumph for its ‘developmental state’ – a highly centralised form of societal organisation that has delivered positive economic results despite exhibiting deeply-rooted authoritarian tendencies. Despite a range of potential political and economic risks, outlined in the bond’s 108-page prospectus, the poorest country ever to tap the global sovereign market attracted bids worth $2.6bn for a $1bn offer, at a competitive 6.625% interest rate.

Ethiopia is holding international roadshows to drum up investor interest in a $1bn, ten-year bond issue to fund its ambitious infrastructure investment programme. The bond follows the issuing of a B1 sovereign credit rating in May by Moody’s Investors Service, and B ratings by Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings. The roadshows are being organised by JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank. Ethiopia joins a growing number of African countries tapping international debt markets. Recent sovereign issuers have included Ghana, Kenya, Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire.

Toshiba Corporation has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Ethiopian Electric Power on a geothermal power partnership envisaging collaboration in power generation projects and personnel development. Toshiba said it had committed to develop and manufacture major equipment, create operation and management guidelines, co-operate in personnel development, and start a waste heat utilisation business. Toshiba says it commands the world’s largest market share for geothermal equipment, with 24% of total installed capacity. Ethiopia’s geothermal potential is estimated at 6,000MW, but has yet to be explored and developed, though several projects are in their early stages.

Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) has awarded a contract to a Chinese-led consortium to build the 371MW Geba hydroelectric project in the Baro-Akobo Basin, in the east of the country. Engineering, procurement and construction work will be carried out by the China Gezhouba Group Corporation (CGGC), alongside Sinohydro and local firm Sur Construction. EEP’s predecessor, the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation, originally sought expressions of interest in Q4 2008 to finance and build Geba as two projects, the 220MW Geba I and 165MW Geba II.

Russia’s GPB Ethiopia Resources plans an airborne full tensor gravity (FTG) and magnetic survey over the Gewane el Wiha Block in the Afar licence area. GPB Ethiopia is part of GPB Global Resources Group, which signed a production-sharing agreement for the 42,000km2 Afar licence area in July. The company, a subsidiary of Gazprom, is headed by Boris Ivanov and Christophe Gerard, both familiar faces on the African oil circuit. A tender for the FTG work closed on 3 October. The agreement has a seven-year exploration period and a 25-year production period. GPB Global Resources is the operator of the project and has committed to financing exploration.