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The 5MW Outapi solar photovoltaic project is beginning connection testing this month with commercial operations to begin soon after, local impact investor and project founder Camelthorn Business Ventures told African Energy. The project was one of 14 renewable energy independent power producers with combined capacity of 70MW selected through the country’s interim feed-in tariff programme in 2015.

Tullow Oil and Chariot Oil & Gas plan back-to-back wells in Namibia’s Walvis Basin this year. Tullow plans to spud the Cormorant well on PEL 37 on 1 September using the Ocean Rig Poseidon deep-water drillship. This will be Tullow’s sole exploration well in 2018 as the company focuses on development in Ghana and Kenya. It will be followed in late October by Chariot’s planned well on Prospect S on PEL 71.

Azonto Petroleum’s successor company Calima Energy has been awarded Block 2813B in the Orange River Basin, immediately west of the Kudu gas field. Azonto changed its name last year and Ophir Energy founders Alan Stein and Jonathan Taylor joined the board. Stein is now managing director and Taylor is technical director. Azonto previously held acreage offshore Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana and was originally called Rialto Energy. During the first year of the initial four-year licence term, Calima will evaluate existing data in and around the block.

Construction got under way in March at a 10MW solar photovoltaic (PV) project near Mariental, one of four being developed in Namibia by Evolution Africa’s Manna Renewables, all of which are expected online in August. The project was initially developed by Israel’s FK Generators until Manna Renewables purchased a 79% stake in mid-2017, alongside Beta Energy, a company owned by a group of Namibian women. Evolution Africa is a private equity and financial advisory business focused on the infrastructure and renewable energy markets in Africa.

Spain’s Alten Africa has reached financial close at the $70m, 37MW Hardap solar photovoltaic project in Mariental municipality. The project will comprise 140,000 crystalline silicon panels mounted on tracking systems and occupying a 100ha site. The plant is expected to produce 112GWh/yr when it begins operating in September.The project was awarded after a disputed tender was re-issued in May 2016 and awarded to Alten, for a second time, in early 2017.

The Tullow Oil-led PEL 37 joint venture has contracted the Ocean Rig Poseidon to drill the Cormorant-1 exploration well. The well is expected to spud on 1 September. Partner Pancontinental Oil & Gas said the well had the potential to contain prospective resources of 124m barrels of recoverable oil, while the cumulative potential of the top four mapped prospects in the block totalled 915m barrels of recoverable oil.

Chariot Oil & Gas has conditionally raised $15m through a share placing to finance a well in Namibia’s Walvis Basin and plans to raise another €5m ($5.9m) via an open offer. Chariot plans to drill in H2 this year, though the company is still hoping to secure a partner to share the cost. The target is Prospect S on PEL 71 (blocks 2312 & 2412A), where Chariot said last year it had identified five structural prospects.

Portugal’s Galp said on 31 January that it was farming down a 40% interest in Petroleum Exploration Licence (PEL) 82 to ExxonMobil. On conclusion of the transaction, Galp and ExxonMobil will each hold a 40% interest in the licence, and Galp will retain the operatorship.

The Ministry of Mines and Energy has invited bids by 6 March from consultants to carry out a feasibility study to develop an approach and a business and market model for bush-to-electricity (BtE) projects. BtE aims to generate energy by burning biomass from de-bushing operations to clear invasive bush species. The contract for the Global Energy Transfer Feed-in Tariffs (Get FiT) BtE programme is to be financed within the framework of German financial cooperation with Namibia and has a budget of €250,000 ($311,000).

Norway’s BW Offshore has postponed the target date for a final investment decision (FID) on the Kudu gas development to mid-year, as the project continues to seek financing in the face of Namibia’s reluctance to provide bank guarantees. In its present configuration, the offshore gas field will be developed to supply a 442MW power plant, half the size previously planned.

The joint venture partners in the Tullow Oil-operated PEL 37 have agreed to drill a well on the Cormorant prospect with a target spud date in September 2018. Partner Africa Energy Corporation said the Cormorant prospect was located in the Walvis Basin in a water depth of 550 metres. The prospect is one in a series of extensive base-of-slope turbidite fan prospects, which directly overlie an Aptian source rock recently proven by the nearby Murombe-1 and Wingat-1 wells.

Africa Oil Corporation (AOC) has bought a 19.77% stake in Eco (Atlantic) Oil & Gas for C$14m ($11m) and entered into a strategic alliance agreement to identify new projects. AOC bought 29.2m new shares in Eco at C$0.48/share, and president and chief executive Keith Hill is expected to join the Eco board as a non-executive director. The agreement allows AOC to bid jointly with Eco on any new assets or ventures, and to have a right of first refusal on any farm-out by Eco.

A final investment decision (FID) on development of the Kudu gas project is expected late this year or in Q1 2018, with the start of commercial operations targeted for end-2021. Namcor managing director Immanuel Mulunga told Africa Upstream the partners were expecting financial close in mid-2018. He told reporters Namcor planned to farm down some of its 44% stake in the upstream element of the project and was considering various debt and equity options.

Total has added to its presence in Mauritania and Senegal with a technical evaluation agreement offshore Guinea covering 55,000km2 of deep and ultra-deep waters. In Namibia, the French major will acquire 70% of Impact Oil & Gas’s interests in Block 2913B, while in South Africa, it will acquire 77.78% of Impact’s interests in the Orange Basin Deep technical cooperation permit (TCP), once an exploration right is granted over the area. Impact will retain the other 22.2%.

Africa Energy Corporation has taken a 10% stake in PEL 37 in the Walvis Basin. The Cape Town-based company has acquired one third of the shares in Pancontinental Oil & Gas subsidiary Pancontinental Namibia Pty Ltd, which holds a 30% participating interest in PEL 37. ONGC Videsh took a 30% stake in the Tullow Oil-operated licence in June. Tullow holds 35% and the local Paragon Oil & Gas holds 5%.