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Sudan’s energy sector has a history of mismanagement and bad value deals going back many years. Its record of failure started under Omar Hassan Al-Bashir (head of state under various titles from 1989 until 2019) and worsened under the ineffective successor civilian administration.

Exports of crude oil from Sudan and South Sudan appear to be holding up, despite the fighting between rival Sudanese generals Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and General Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti).

Analysis of the African Energy Live Data platform shows installed electricity generation capacity in East Africa is set to be boosted by nearly 15GW, as mega-hydroelectric projects finally come to fruition and renewables gain pace over the next five years. The project pipeline could grow even more quickly if the ambitious goals set out by Kenya and other governments are achieved.

London-listed independent Wildcat Petroleum has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Sudan’s Ministry of Oil and Gas to increase output by 100,000 b/d through the development of blocks 1, 3, 4 and 5 near the border with South Sudan.

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.

As the anniversary of Sudan’s 25 October 2021 coup approaches, General Abdel-Fatah Burhan’s efforts to re-establish a military-led framework that can secure western funding while also keeping ties with powerful Russian and Gulf allies continues with little expectation of imminent success. That is bad news for a country whose eviscerated economy was hoping for lift-off last year, as the United States began to wind down sanctions and allow debt relief.

Khartoum is prepared to offer new oil exploration and production blocks to Moscow-headquartered Zarubezhneft, Sudanese Oil Production Department director Eltahir Mohammed told Russia’s Interfax news agency on 19 August.

A string of UAE companies – some with links to national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan – are said to be involved in a plan to develop a new Red Sea port, working with Sudanese businessman Osama Daoud Abdellatif. In a complex political situation, this might also be of interest to regime number two Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo (aka Hemedti)’s friends in Russia.

Ethiopia’s ‘unilateral action’ in starting limited power generation at the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd) violates its diplomatic obligations, Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry told the Council of the League of Arab States on 9 March.

Prime minister Abdalla Hamdok’s resignation on 2 January has left Sudan’s already faltering transition on life support, amid reports of renewed tensions between senior military commander General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia chief General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo (known as Hemedti).

Protestors succeeded in blocking the shipment of crude through Port Sudan – critical to the oil industry in South Sudan, as well as to Khartoum’s income flows – in late September, underscoring the continued instability wrought by an incomplete regional peace agreement that has left key eastern tribes excluded, write Nazik Shammam in Khartoum and James Gavin.

Sudan’s embattled civilian-military government is now two years into a three-year term, but fissures in the uneasy alliance that sees power divided between Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok and Transitional Sovereign Council head General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan are rarely far from the surface.

Given the Sudanese treasury’s dependence on the $25/bbl transit fee accrued from South Sudanese oil flows, the authorities in Khartoum will need to keep the eastern situation under control. That is even more the case as the Republic of South Sudan’s exports have disappointed in recent years, reducing the size of the revenue pie.

Texas-based Schlumberger Rod Lift (SRL) has agreed to pay a $160,000 fine to the US authorities to settle a 2015-16 violation of US sanctions against Sudan; the sanctions were lifted in October 2017.

The installation of the 0.9MW pilot turbine at the Dongola wind energy project (WEP) has been delayed “towards the end of the year”, owing to delays in the “construction of the foundations”, Emergya Wind Technologies (EWT) chief marketing and sales officer Rob Van De Veerdonk told African Energy.