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Tullow Oil and Total have signed a sale and purchase agreement for Tullow to transfer its interests in blocks 1, 1A, 2 and 3A and the proposed East African Crude Oil Pipeline for $575m in cash plus potential contingent payments after first oil. While the sale price is substantially lower than the previous $900m deal that collapsed in August 2019, it provides Tullow with badly needed upfront cash as the company struggles with a $2.8bn debt overhang.

Earth Energy Ltd is inviting expressions of interest from consultants for a front-end engineering design study for a 20MW biomass project in Gulu. The contract is funded by a grant from the African Development Bank-managed Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa. The plant will use agricultural by-products such as rice husks, maize cobs and groundnut shells left over from crops by local farmers and processed within 150km of the site.

Uganda suffered a nationwide power outage on 14 April after a giant floating mass of vegetation blocked water intake screens at the Nalubaale hydropower station, putting the country’s three main power plants out of action. Eskom Uganda said the water weed island had been carried by rising water levels in Lake Victoria. Power was lost at the 380MW Kiira-Nalubaale complex, and at the 250MW Bujagali plant downstream.The outage meant a national broadcast by President Yoweri Museveni on the coronavirus crisis had to be delayed by an hour.

China Gezhouba Group International Engineering Company signed a framework agreement on 17 February to develop 500MW of solar PV in Uganda. Parent company China Energy Engineering Corporation said in an announcement to the Hong Kong stock exchange that the project would be developed in two phases under an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) plus financing model, with Gezhouba International as the EPC contractor.

State-owned engineering and construction group PowerChina International Group Limited has applied for a licence to develop a 840MW hydropower plant on the Nile River that would expand Uganda’s installed power capacity by 40%. According to a licence application submitted this month, PowerChina wants to build the plant on a section of the Nile between lakes Kyoga and Albert in the north of the country.

Distribution company Umeme Ltd announced on 12 December that it has secured a $70m loan that will part-fund its capital expenditure for the next two years. The World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation was lead arranger for the syndicated loan; participants included Stanbic Bank Uganda Ltd, Standard Chartered Bank and the Netherlands’ FMO. Umeme is investing in the expansion and reinforcement of its network to improve the quality and reliability of supply.

Oil minister Irene Muloni has said she expects the government to intervene to resolve a tax dispute that has prevented Tullow Oil selling part of its stakes in three Lake Albert licences. Speaking at a thinly attended London roadshow to promote Uganda’s second licensing round, she said it had not been possible to resolve the issue before the sale and purchase agreement (SPA) expired in late August. Total announced the expiry of the SPA on 29 August, saying the parties had been unable to reach agreement on the tax terms.

Tullow Oil’s farmdown to Total and CNOOC of around 20% of its Ugandan licences terminated on 29 August, following the expiry of the sale and purchase agreements (SPAs). Tullow said it had been unable to secure a further extension. With a final investment decision (FID) on the development now pushed further back, Total has suspended development of the export pipeline to Tanzania’s Tanga port.

A cabinet meeting on 26 August agreed that the government would not pursue development of a proposed 360MW hydropower dam at Murchison Falls, a popular tourist destination within a national park.“Cabinet took a decision at its latest sitting that there will be no construction of the hydropower dam in Murchison Falls National Park,” tourism minister Ephraim Kamuntu told Agence France-Presse. “Definitely we still need more electricity to power our expanding economy, but this project can go elsewhere, not in the park.”

The Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) board of directors on 13 August named Proscovia Nabbanja as acting chief executive to replace Josephine Wapakabulo, who has resigned from the post. Nabbanja, a geologist by training, has been UNOC chief operating officer upstream for the last three years. Before that she was a principal geologist in the Petroleum Exploration & Production Department within the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development. Wapakabulo said in her resignation letter she wanted to focus on her family and new opportunities.

The Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF) announced on 12 August the finalisation of a $54m debt finance package for a 16.5MW run-of-river plant at Kikagati on the Kagera River, which forms the border between Uganda and Tanzania. EAIF said financial closure of the project had seen the first tranche of debt funding released to the developer and future owner-operator, the Kikagati Power Company, which is wholly owned by the Africa Energy Renewable Fund. The EAIF and Dutch development bank FMO have each provided loans of $27m for the $87m project.

Denmark’s Cowi A/S has been appointed to carry out a full feasibility study for the 20MW Earth Energy biomass project in Gulu, northern Uganda. The $650,000 contract has a one-year duration. Earth Energy Company Ltd received a $993,000 grant from the African Development Bank-managed Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa in 2016 for the study. Germany’s KfW and the US’ Power Africa are also backing the project, which is expected to buy agricultural waste from around 15,000 farmers in the north-west of the country.

Following an outcry over an application from a South African company for a permit to conduct feasibility studies for a hydro plant at Murchison Falls, state minister for privatisation and investment Evelyn Anite has said the site will be protected.“We don’t agree with any investor destroying our natural resources. And I don’t expect any investor to be licensed to destroy a national treasure like Murchison Falls or even operate in a wetland,” the New Vision newspaper quoted her as saying on 25 June.

The Swedish and Ugandan governments signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on 19 June to enhance cooperation and promote trade in the energy sector between the two countries. The MoU will give Ugandan energy utilities access to capacity building and technical support from their Swedish counterparts and promote provision of Swedish solutions to Ugandan utilities backed by Swedish financing via Swedish export credit agencies EKN and SEK.

Nigeria’s Oranto Petroleum has completed acquisition of 326km of 2D seismic data over the Ngassa Block in the Albertine Graben. The Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU) said the survey was carried out by the UK’s IMC Geophysical Services between 19 April and 18 May as part of the work programme for the first two-year exploration phase on the licence that runs from October 2017 to October 2019. The next two-year phase includes an obligation to drill at least one well.