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Total has signed an agreement with the local Conoil Producing Ltd to farm into the deep offshore OPL 257 licence with a 40% interest. Conoil remains the operator with a 50% interest, and a smaller local company holds the remaining 10%. Total will be the technical advisor.

IOCs and consumer governments are indulging in intense speculation about Gazprom’s Nigerian love-in, with indications that Moscow might also revive co-operation with Algeria and invest big in several other African gas plays.

The government has given Elf Petroleum Nigeria Ltd (EPNL) the go-ahead to develop the Usan field on the former OPL 222.

ALGERIA: Energy subsidies hamper WTO; ANGOLA/NIGERIA: Oil business PRI rates come down

An impressive array of new policies and committees has been announced to revive Nigeria’s troubled power sector, but rows over previous failures, wobbles over tariff hikes and the massive cost of the investment needed to reach 100,000MW by 2015 give cause to wonder whether the Yar’Adua administration really can turn things round.

BOTSWANA: BPC seeks alternatives to Eskom supply; EGYPT: Lahmeyer gets consultancy order for Assiut HPP; ETHIOPIA: Gilgel Gibe 3 turbines out to bid; MOROCCO: EOIs sought for Abdelmoumen STEP; NIGERIA: Aqua Energy to build BOT hydro in Kano; SOUTH AFRICA: ABB wins $21m Eskom order

The availability of gas for domestic sectors – particularly power – is a major plank of the government’s reform programme (AE127/17).

A $200m naira-linked loan for Nigerian energy player Oando has set a series of benchmarks, writes Kevin Godier.

Independent power producer Geometric Power Ltd has contracted GE Energy to supply three aeroderivative gas turbines for its private power plant at Aba, the commercial capital of Abia State (AE 126/9).

Pipeline leaks in Nigeria mean Ghanaians are still waiting for first gas from the West African Gas Pipeline, which had been promised for Christmas.

Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) has shortlisted two Chinese companies for the 300MW Morupule power plant expansion, badly needed to reduce the country’s dependence on imports from South Africa. Minerals, Energy and Water Resources Minister Ponatshego Kedikilwe said the government was also reviewing several proposals from independent power producers. The Morupule expansion should come on stream in 2011. Speaking at a briefing for business representatives on the power crisis, Kedikilwe said BPC had entered into a barter arrangement with a power station in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, for BPC to supply coal in return for power.

Controversial ERHC remains a player in the Gulf of Guinea and has high hopes for the Nigeria/STP JDZ.

The Nigeria-based Africa Finance Corporation plans to set up a 12MW heavy fuel oil power plant in Bissau, as part of a project to deploy emergency power and rehabilitate the transmission and distribution network (AE 132/22)

President Umara Musa Yar’Adua wants a stronger national industry – as he noted, opening CWC Associates’ Nigeria Oil & Gas Conference 2008 in Abuja on 19 February, “the provision of petroleum projects is dependent on expertise from other countries.”

Despite all the hype, the Nigeria/ São Tomé e Príncipe Joint Development Zone (JDZ) has achieved nothing – for the international oil companies who poured into this ‘new Gulf of Guinea Eldorado’ in mid-decade, nor for the people of the islands. There are hopes that the 14 February appointment of Patrice Trovoada as prime minister will inject new energy into STP’s once promising but now dormant oil sector.