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A solar power plant with battery energy storage at Centamin’s Sukari gold mine is set to be fully commissioned by year end, replacing diesel generators. London-and-Toronto listed Centamin is also evaluating proposals from independent power producers (IPPs) to supply grid power to the mine.

Having closed its $307m merger with Canada’s TransGlobe Energy, Houston-headquartered Vaalco Energy is looking to exploit potential cost savings of up to $50m, its chief executive George Maxwell told African Energy.

New York hedge fund Irenic Capital Management, which owns 1.5% of Capricorn Energy, has urged the London-listed indie to abandon its acquisition by Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (Tase)-listed NewMed Energy.

Europe’s hunger for non-Russian sources of natural gas has intensified diplomatic and commercial rivalries in the eastern Mediterranean, pushed ambitious schemes to the forefront, and raised the prospects of other African gas plays that were previously considered marginal. But it is not obvious that European governments or buyers are ready to plump for one favoured deal over the rest, meaning the gas could still go elsewhere.  

An Egyptian-led East Mediterranean gas hub hangs in the balance as the partners in Israel’s offshore Leviathan and Tamar gas fields weigh up their commercial options in the face of Cairo’s ambitions to dominate the market. It is the latest in a series of manoeuvres as eastern Mediterranean states – including Libya and Turkey – manoeuvre for position.

The Libyan and Turkish governments have defended their latest memorandum of understanding (MoU) on hydrocarbons exploitation in maritime areas that they claim, but several neighbours dispute. The result is a bad-tempered stand-off, even before details have been announced, let alone exploration areas named or awarded.

Norway’s Empower New Energy has raised $74m in equity from a consortium led by The Hague, Netherlands-based Climate Fund Managers (CFM).

Tel Aviv Stock Exchange-listed NewMed Energy’s proposed acquisition of London-listed Capricorn Energy has pushed aside a planned deal with Tullow Oil in favour of a merger that intensifies Israel’s involvement in the Egyptian upstream sector and could represent another important eastern Mediterranean gas play.

Japan’s pledge to invest some $30bn in Africa over the next three years has underlined the Asian economic giant’s commitment to rapidly advance its relations, as well as to expand its presence, on a continent where Tokyo’s involvement has too often lagged behind other big nations.

Large renewable procurement in South Africa and ambitious hydrogen production plans in Egypt are expected to bring huge amounts of privately-owned, utility-scale solar capacity on line in the next three years. Meanwhile commercial and industrial solar remains a high growth potential market, according to analysis of  new data from the African Energy Live Data platform.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has committed a $100m loan to Cairo-based Banque Misr for on-lending to local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in the Egyptian green economy.

Governments are assessing their positions over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd) project, after the dam’s third filling was completed, despite an escalation of rhetoric from Egypt and Sudan as the downstream nations continue to complain at a threat to their dependency on Blue Nile waters for irrigation and basic water supply.

Financial pressures are building to an uncomfortable extent as a result of sharp increases in global commodity prices, but the authorities in Cairo are holding firm to their strategy for energy market liberalisation and reform.

Egypt’s New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) is expecting to commission a number of its own wind and solar projects during the next 12 months as part of a wider project to take installed renewable generation capacity up to 10GW during 2023.

The quartet of public institutions driving Egypt’s green hydrogen (GH2) development have signed eight new memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with international partners in the past month, seven of them in one session on 25 August, bringing to at least 17 the number of projects under consideration. The new participants include UK-based Actis and Globeleq, two of India’s largest renewables developers, Acme Group and ReNew Power, and Gulf-based investors Alcazar Energy, Alfanar Group and K&K Energy, plus Egypt- and US-backed Mediterranean Energy Partners.