Search results

Tullow Oil has announced a second unsuccessful well in the South Omo Block. The Tultule-1 wildcat was drilled to a total depth of 2,101 metres and will be plugged and abandoned as a dry hole. The well was targeting a reservoir section similar to the sands drilled in the nearby Sabisa-1 well, where oil shows were encountered but these sands were not penetrated in Tultule-1. Tullow said gas shows were recorded, “which reaffirm the presence of a hydrocarbon source in the region”, and the results of both wells would now be analysed to determine the future exploration campaign for the area.

Ethiopia’s 6,000MW Grand Renaissance dam on the Blue Nile River is the centrepiece of the country’s five-year Growth and Transformation Programme, which aims to turn the country into a middle-income nation by 2015, expanding its electricity coverage to 75% of the population and supplying the region with power. The dam’s commissioning was originally scheduled to begin during late 2013, but disputes over the potential impact on Ethiopia’s downstream neighbours, Sudan and Egypt, have hampered progress. In 2010, Ethiopia signed an agreement with several other countries in the region, except for Sudan and Egypt, asserting its right to build on the Blue Nile (AE 218/5).

The Africa-EU Energy Partnership (AEEP) will hold its second high-level meeting on 12-13 February 2014, in Addis Ababa. One of eight Joint Africa-European Union Strategic Partnerships created in 2007 – and by most accounts the most dynamic – the AEEP will use the meeting to put forward priorities for action that will feed into preparations for the planned Africa-EU Summit meeting, scheduled to be held in Brussels on 2-3 April. The meeting will unveil the AEEP’s First Monitoring Report (for which African Energy publisher Cross-border Information is consultant), showing progress made towards meeting targets for generation, energy security, access and energy efficiency.

The Ministry of Water and Energy and the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation have given US companies Global Trade and Development Consulting and Energy Ventures a contract for three 100MW solar plants in the east of the country.The site selection, due diligence and feasibility study were completed earlier this year and the plants will be developed on a build-operate-transfer basis. Global Trade and Development Consulting is run by Ethiopian-born economist Yonnas Kefle. In 2010, the government launched its Growth and Transformation Plan, which aims to turn Ethiopia into a middle-income country by 2023.

Prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn formally inaugurated the 120MW Ashegoda wind farm on 26 October. The wind farm, which started commissioning a year ago, was developed by France’s Vergnet, which signed a contract with Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) in October 2008. Lahmeyer carried out feasibility studies and supervised construction. Financing for the €210m ($272m) project was provided by €113m of buyer credit from Compagnie Française d’Assurance pour le Commerce Extérieur, a €45m concessional loan from the Agence Française de Développement, and a €33m tied commercial loan from BNP Paribas. EEPCo provided €19m in local currency.

As the pace of East African exploration picks up, Tullow Oil spudded the Tutule-1 well on 21 September in the South Omo Block in the Southern Rift Basin. Joint venture partner Africa Oil Corporation said the well would test the Tertiary rift play in a horst block feature 4km east of the recent Sabisa-1 well, which proved the basic elements of a hydrocarbon system including reservoir, seal and source. Further east on Block 8 in the Ogaden Basin, operator New Age (African Global Energy) is expected to spud the El Kuran well later this month.

The government has signed an agreement with Reykjavik Geothermal to develop a 1,000MW geothermal project in the Corbetti area. Reykjavik will build and operate the project in two phases, with the first 500MW developed in the Corbetti Caldera. The first 10MW should be brought on line during 2015, followed by an additional 100MW in 2016, with the full 500MW scheduled to contribute to the grid by 2018. “Ethiopian scientists have been studying the area for some time. Icelandic and Ethiopian scientists have come to the conclusion it’s one the most attractive areas of the world,”

Genel Energy has announced that it has agreed to acquire a 40% interest in the Adigala Block in north-east Ethiopia from New Age (African Global Energy) Limited. Genel will pay a share of back costs and of a 2D seismic survey planned by year-end. New Age reprocessed 520km of existing 2D seismic in 2012 and carried out a full tensor gravity survey.

India’s CSM Technologies has signed a 3.6m birr ($190,600) contract with the Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (FEACC) to deliver wealth registration software. The FEACC received approval for its Asset Disclosure Management Information System in 2010.

Ethiopia and Djibouti have signed an agreement for a second power interconnection. The 230kV transmission line running from Semera in Ethiopia’s Afar region to Jaban in Djibouti will allow Djibouti to import between 35MW and 70MW, though the Addis Fortune said Djibouti was not expected to take more than 50MW. The existing 230kV line was commissioned in 2011 and supplies around 35MW.

The latest venture of serial entrepreneurs Philippe Edmonds and Andrew Groves, Africa Oilfield Logistics, established to invest in the oil and gas logistics support industry in sub-Saharan Africa, has bought a 49% interest in Ardan Risk & Support Services, an oilfields and logistics business with operations in Kenya, Ethiopia and Mauritius. The deal is the first for Africa Oilfield, which has been granted exclusivity for 180 days with a view to entering into an agreement to acquire the remaining 51%.

A senior team leader at the Ethiopian Revenue & Customs Authority (ERCA) was jailed for five-and-a-half years in late July for receiving bribes and abuse of power. The Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission arrested several ERCA officials on suspicion of corruption in May 2013 and charges were made later that month. Kumlachew Yeshambel was charged with taking 200,000 birr ($10,600) in bribes.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has earmarked €3.65bn ($4.77bn) in loans to be disbursed to Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states between 2014 and 2020, with sub-Saharan Africa a major beneficiary. Speaking to African Energy during the annual visit of ambassadors of ACP partner countries to the bank’s Luxembourg headquarters, EIB vice-president for sub-Saharan Africa Pim van Ballekom praised recent African growth, saying: “Investing in Africa is good for Africa, of course, but also for European industries.”


The European Investment Bank (EIB) has earmarked €3.65bn ($4.77bn) in loans to be disbursed to Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states between 2014 and 2020, with sub-Saharan Africa a major beneficiary. Speaking to African Energy during the annual visit of ambassadors of ACP partner countries to the Bank’s Luxembourg headquarters, EIB vice-president for sub-Saharan Africa Pim van Ballekom praised recent African growth, saying: “Investing in Africa is good for Africa, of course, but also for European industries.” The €3.65bn includes €1.13bn from the European Commission, under the EIB-managed ACP-EU Investment Facility, for technical assistance programmes or interest rate subsidies. The other €2.5bn will come from the EIB’s own resources.

Speaking in Cape Town at the end of June, Barack Obama unveiled a new multi-billion dollar power initiative, Power Africa, aimed at doubling sub-Saharan access rates, boosting generation capacity by 10,000MW and connecting more than 20m households and businesses to the grid over the next five years. Under the scheme, the US government will provide $7bn of financial support, while a major private sector investment drive will pump an additional $9bn-worth of investment into African power projects. Power Africa has identified six initial partner countries – Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria and Tanzania – all of which “have set ambitious goals in electric power generation and are making the utility and energy sector reforms to pave the way for investment and growth”, according to the White House.