Search results

Capricorn Energy announced on 15 February that it had formally ended plans to merge with Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (Tase)-listed NewMed Energy. It represented a victory for activist investment group Palliser Capital and other shareholders that had campaigned against the planned tie-up first mooted on 29 September.

Always a symbol of national pride, Aswan High Dam has become a greater priority for Egypt since Ethiopia started filling the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd). It is now also seen as a necessary protection against potential upstream trouble, as well as an important source of electricity. 

UK major BP has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the four main state institutions running green hydrogen (GH2) development in Egypt. The MoU, dating from December, brings the total number of potential projects under consideration by Cairo to at least 19.

In the teeth of a severe and worsening currency crisis, Cairo has doubled down on its approach to hydrocarbons sector development, launching a new upstream bidding round, signing a number of bilateral exploration agreements and announcing two significant gas finds. Its regional energy hub plan has also received a boost, writes John Hamilton.

Egypt has a good claim to have been the most dynamic of all African countries in 2022, but 2023 may be its year of reckoning. The currency crisis now ravaging the economy could bring President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s futuristic edifice of renewables, green hydrogen (GH2), new cities, real estate, electric trains, sea water desalination and social infrastructure crashing down unless he can keep on side a wide coalition. This includes the IMF and Gulf monarchies which are Egypt’s largest creditors, the military, whose economic prerogatives must now be curtailed, a hard-pressed population, and international business partners.

Sultan Al-Jaber’s appointment to preside over the end-year COP28 climate talks in Dubai brings a storied United Arab Emirates official to global prominence. His leadership in renewables developer Masdar and other UAE sustainable energy initiatives is welcome, but Al-Jaber’s powerful role as head of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) has added to climate campaigners’ fears that big hydrocarbons producers will take the COP process even further off track, write Jon Marks and African Energy staff.

The International Monetary Fund’s $3bn extended fund facility (EFF) arrangement with Egypt, announced on 16 December, has left Cairo wanting, with a further $14bn needed from international and regional partners to help fill depleted coffers.

Egyptian oil and gas producers are foregoing an estimated $4.5bn a year of revenues by flaring gas rather than putting it to use – 50% more than the $3bn financing deal recently agreed between Cairo and the IMF. International companies are putting in place projects to deal with the problem, but a lot more needs to be done.  

Hull-based HiiROC expects to install a number of thermal plasma electrolysis units at gas flaring sites in Egypt in 2023, after signing aN MOU with Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company. The programme is part of a wider series of pilot projects that HiiROC hopes will demonstrate the commercial viability of producing what it calls ‘emerald hydrogen’, writes John Hamilton.

Cairo has got much of what it wanted from the COP27 climate-fest in Sharm El Sheikh, with $85bn of green hydrogen and renewable power mega-deals that have focused attention and foreign investment on a centrepiece of President Sisi’s economic strategy, Egypt’s energy hub concept. African Energy has analysed proposals from nine investment partners to calculate how much wind and solar generation capacity will be needed to produce green ammonia equivalent to 10% of current global production, which Egypt says it is ‘harvesting’, writes John Hamilton.

Germany’s Juwi is the final stages of commissioning the 36MWp solar PV plant at Centamin’s Sukari gold mine, which will work alongside an existing diesel plant.

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s aim of using COP27 to bolster Egypt’s credentials as a regional green energy hub have seen deals on multi-gigawatt wind farms and the commissioning of the first green hydrogen (GH2) pilot project in Africa. But tricky compromises will be needed to turn some of the heady plans into reality.

Criticism of the proposed acquisition of London Stock Exchange (LSE)-listed Capricorn Energy by Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (Tase)-listed NewMed Energy has quickly gained momentum. As of 3 November, over one-third of Capricorn equity holders had publicly opposed the deal. The tie-up requires a majority of shareholders to vote in its favour at a general meeting.

Taqa Arabia will sell the power from its 20MW Sharm El Sheikh solar PV plant to customers of its own Global Energy distribution company. The project shows it is possible to build substantial renewable energy projects under regulator EgyptERA’s auto-generation rules. It has also stimulated positive headlines about the greening of the Red Sea tourism city in advance of COP27.

The Egyptian government has approved an extension of Spanish renewable power developer TSK Grupo’s operations and maintenance contract for the Kom Ombo solar PV plant, which is owned by the New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA).