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The 700MW Cambambe II hydro plant on the Kwanza River started up on 29 June, adding to the existing 4x65MW Cambambe I to give a total installed capacity of 960MW from the site south-east of Luanda.Angolan news agency Angop quoted energy and water minister João Baptista Borges as saying the $2bn project to expand and modernise plant I, build plant II and raise the height of the dam from 100 to 132 metres would provide a large amount of renewable energy.

Portuguese engineering firm Coba Consultores de Engenheria e Ambiente SA has been selected as the technical adviser for the 2,171MW Caculo Cabaça hydropower dam project on the Kwanza River, according to a decree issued by the office of President José Eduardo dos Santos on 25 April. Coba will oversee the engineering, procurement, installation and commissioning of the power plant’s electromechanical equipment, which will be carried out by a consortium called AIBC, formed by Dubai-based Anglostar Management DMCC, Brazil’s Intertechne Consultores SA, Israel’s Baran International and the Luanda-based Copia Group.

Sonangol has cancelled a tender issued in 2014 offering five onshore blocks in the Kwanza Basin and three in the Lower Congo Basin. Sonangol said the original aim of the bidding process was to offer upstream opportunities to Angolan entrepreneurs and companies but the sharp drop in the oil price meant the concessions were no longer viable. A statement published on Sonangol’s website on 17 May said that the original terms published for the tender would not be profitable for companies in the near future, and no change was possible without raising questions about the transparency of the bidding process.

GE on 2 May announced an order from Angola’s AE Energia for seven TM2500 mobile aeroderivative gas turbine generator sets for state power producer Empresa Pública de Produção de Electricidade (Prodel). The TM2500 units will be installed in Namibe, Huila and Cuando Cubango provinces and will be capable of providing the remaining 200MW of power for the government to achieve a targeted 1GW of electricity by end-2018.

Cobalt International Energy has filed two arbitration requests with the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Paris seeking more than $2bn in compensation from Sonangol. In March 2017, Cobalt submitted a notice of dispute to Sonangol EP over the sale of the US company’s 40% holdings in blocks 20 and 21. In an operational update on 8 May, Cobalt said it had now filed a request for arbitration with the ICC against Sonangol EP for breach of the August 2015 purchase and sale agreement for the sale by Cobalt to Sonangol of the assets.

The UK’s Independent Power Corporation Plc (IPC) has launched a new power development company, QG Power Africa, in a joint venture with its existing partner, engineering consultancy Tomé International, and the $250m QG Africa Mezzanine LP investment fund managed by Quantum Global Group’s QG Investments Africa Management. Established to develop power plants across sub-Saharan Africa, QG Power will focus initially on Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Uganda, Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana. QG Africa Mezzanine will support the joint venture as strategic investor, while Swiss-based Tomé will be responsible for project management and IPC for the development of the power assets.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has launched an investigation into payments made to Sonangol by Cobalt International Energy for a research centre that has yet to materialise. In its 10-K annual filing on 14 March, Cobalt said that, on 13 March, the SEC had informed the company by telephone that it had initiated an informal inquiry related to the Sonangol Research and Technology Centre. Payments for the centre were a condition of a production-sharing contract signed by Cobalt and BP in December 2011.

Chevron announced on 8 March that its Cabinda Gulf Oil Company (Cabgoc) subsidiary had begun producing oil and gas from the main production facility of the Mafumeira Sul project.Located 24km offshore Cabinda province in 60 metres of water, Mafumeira Sul is the second stage of development of the Mafumeira field in Block 0. It has a design capacity of 150,000 b/d of liquids and 350mcf/d of natural gas.

Sonangol is seeking help from international oil companies (IOCs) to secure the release of two drilling rigs ordered from South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME). The rigs were ready for delivery last year, but Sonangol was unable to pay the balance of the purchase price. Sonangol said in a statement that work was ongoing to secure financing, select technical and operational partners, and identify new production opportunities to employ the drilling rigs in the Angolan market.

General Electric’s Angolan partner AE Energia has delivered three 28MW turbines to the Quileva thermal power plant in Lobito to increase its capacity to 215MW. The TM 2500 turbines, which were manufactured at a GE plant in Hungary, will undergo testing before being connected to the grid. The Ministry of Energy and Water said the increased generation capacity aims to improve supply to the cities of Benguela, Lobito, Catumbela and Baía Farta.

The first turbine of the 750MW Soyo combined-cycle gas power plant in the far north on the Congolese border will be connected to the grid by the end of March, according to the Ministry of Energy and Water. The plant is being brought on line in phases and all four 187.5MW turbines should be operational by year-end. A 400km high-voltage transmission line between Soyo and Luanda is due to be completed in May. The cities of Nzeto, Tomboco, Mbanza Congo, Nóqui and Cuimba in the Zaire province will be the first to be connected to the grid.

Cobalt International Energy said on 9 February that the US Department of Justice (DoJ) had closed its investigation into Cobalt’s operations in Angola. The DoJ and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) began investigating Cobalt in 2011 in response to allegations of a connection between senior Angolan government officials and Nazaki Oil and Gas, an Angolan company that, until 2014, held a working interest alongside Cobalt on blocks 9 and 21 (AE 284/21).

Eni has started production from the East Hub development project in Block 15/06. Oil from nine wells on the Cabaça South East field is being produced to the Armada Olombendo floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, with capacity of 80,000 b/d of oil and 3.4mcf/d of gas.East Hub will add to production from the existing West Hub Project in the Sangos, Cinguvu and Mpungi fields, where another vessel, the FPSO N’Goma, is operating (AE 291/15). In total, Block 15/06 will reach peak output of 150,000 b/d of oil this year.

Eni’s floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel Armada Olombendo has arrived at Block 15/06 ready for next year’s start-up of the East Hub development project. The vessel was built at Keppel shipyard in Singapore for Malaysian FPSO operator Bumi Armada. Eni held a naming ceremony there on 14 October.

Sonangol’s new board has said that a thorough investigation of the parastatal’s financial and management problems has revealed that the situation is worse than expected. With $1.6bn of debt payments due by year-end, the company has been in talks with international banks to secure financing. The company’s total debt is estimated at $9.85bn.A 1 December statement by the new board said Sonangol had failed to adjust its strategy to cope with the sharp reduction in revenue caused by the oil price crash.