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While Tullow Oil has completed the $575m sale of its Uganda assets to operator Total, removing one barrier to a final investment decision (FID), development of the Lake Albert oil project is likely to take some time. With the year-end fast approaching, Ugandan energy minister Mary Goretti now says she expects FID in H1 2021, though Total had previously talked of a target of end-2020.

Participants at an Africa Investment Exchange panel on strategies for regional integration and transmission investment on 27 October provided an update on the progress of the Eastern Africa Power Pool (EAPP), where the secretariat has been busy preparing for electricity trading and a growing network of interconnections. By far the most advanced construction work is on interconnectors between Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania, which are expected to transmit their first power between April and June next year.

Uganda Electricity Generation Company Limited (UEGCL) invites bids by 11 January from consultants to act as owner’s engineer for the Muzizi hydropower project on the lower course of the Muzizi River in western Uganda.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has launched prequalification for a tender to develop small solar PV systems to power its operations in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. Contractors will finance, build and operate plants at up to ten UNHCR sites. Expression of interests are due by 30 November. A request for proposals is scheduled to be issued in early 2021 and further tenders are expected.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has launched prequalification for a tender to develop small solar PV systems to power its operations across three countries.

Tullow Oil is finally set to close its $575m deal to sell its Ugandan assets to Total after the government and the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) executed a binding tax agreement. Tullow, which announced in April that agreement in principle had been reached following discussions with President Yoweri Museveni, the URA and other government departments, said on 21 October the agreement reflected the pre-agreed principles on the tax treatment of the sale.

Uganda Electricity Generation Company (UEGCL) has invited bids by 19 October to provide technical support for operations and maintenance of the Karuma and Isimba hydropower plants on the Victoria Nile. The 183MW Isimba plant, which is located in the Kamuli District in the Eastern Region, about 40km downstream of the 250MW Bujagali station, was fully commissioned in March 2019.

Upstream operator Total has signed a host government agreement (HGA) with Uganda for its proposed oil export pipeline project connecting Uganda’s oil fields to Tanzania’s Tanga port. “We have today reached major milestones which pave the way to the final investment decision [FID] in the coming months.

The Uganda Electricity Transmission Company (UETCL) invites prequalification bids by 11 November for the design, supply, installation and commissioning of components for the establishment of a 400kV transmission line between Masaka and Mbarara in south-western Uganda.

The Nile Equatorial Lakes Subsidiary Action Program of the Nile Basin Initiative invites expressions of interest from consultants by 7 October to update the feasibility study report, detailed design and tender documents for the Uganda-Democratic Republic of Congo Power Interconnection Line Project.

The African Union Commission has received 17 expressions of interest (EoIs) for the Geothermal Risk Mitigation Facility’s sixth application round. The EoIs, for projects in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya,Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, consisted of ten surface studies and seven drilling programmes, and were submitted by both private and public entities. Bid opening took place on 3 August.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has agreed a $12.5m loan for Engie subsidiary Fenix International to deploy 240,000 solar home systems in Uganda. According to Engie, the loan will result in 1.4m Ugandans gaining access to electricity.

An appeal hearing in a case brought by six NGOs against Total over its activities in Uganda has been adjourned until 28 October. The case is the first to be brought under France’s 2017 Corporate Duty of Vigilance law, and the NGOs hope to establish a precedent with wider implications for Total and other international companies. On 30 January, the Nanterre high court declined jurisdiction in favour of the commercial court. The NGOs’ appeal against this decision opened at the Versailles Court of Appeal on 24 June and was adjourned.

In comments underlining the gulf that still appears to exist between the government and its IOC partners, President Yoweri Museveni has played down the significance of oil to Uganda’s economic development, saying agriculture and industrial development were key to the country’s future and he had only agreed to an export pipeline to help out Tanzania. On 28 May, Tullow Oil said that CNOOC had opted not to exercise its pre-emption right on the sale of Tullow’s stake to Total, and a binding tax agreement with the government could now be progressed.

Kenya and Uganda were hit by nationwide power cuts early on 9 May, less than a month after Uganda suffered a nationwide blackout caused by debris blocking intakes at Nalubaale hydropower station. Kenya Power said engineers had identified a technical fault at a section of the main high- voltage transmission power line that evacuates power to Nairobi from the Olkaria geothermal complex.An electricity conductor came off its support insulators and crashed onto a tower near Kiambu town.