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The Direction National de l’Energie (DNE) has announced that notices for expressions of interest will be available this month and bidding documents in January for a series of project preparation contracts relating to the Scaling Up Renewable Energy in Low-Income Countries Programme (SREP). SREP aims to demonstrate the viability of low-carbon technologies in low-income countries, with investment plans directed by host governments. The contracts are being funded by a $2.2m grant from the African Development Bank (AfDB) via the Climate Investment Funds.


The West African Power Pool is seeking expressions of interest from consultants to audit the project financial statements for a study on a proposed 225kV interconnection between Guinea and Mali. The audit, funded by the African Development Bank’s African Development Fund soft loans arm, will establish the financial position of the project in 2013 and 2014 and will ensure that resources are being used appropriately. Bids are due by 9 October.

The government has ratified an exploration licence for Raven Resources Group subsidiary Corvus Resources Management to explore Block 6 in the Taoudeni Basin (AE 259/1). Calgary-based Raven is headed by Adeniyi Makanjuola, whose father Aderemi is a close associate of Michael Adenuga, owner of Conoil. Aderemi Makanjuola is chairman of Caverton Helicopters, a significant player in the oil service sector, while Adeniyi is executive vice chairman.

The interim government has signed a production-sharing contract for Block 6 in the Taoudeni Basin with a company called Corvus Resources Management Ltd. Corvus is registered in the Cayman Islands and its corporate record, obtained by African Energy, gives no information on directors, revealing only that the company was formed on 28 August 2012. A cabinet statement said that Corvus had agreed to a work programme for the first four years of the contract to include exploration activity and drilling one well, for a total cost of $35m.

APR Energy on 1 July announced it had signed a contract to supply 40MW to Mali from a power plant it will establish in Senegal. The agreement is the first cross-border deal the US company has signed but follows two contracts signed by Aggreko that use the Southern African Power Pool network to facilitate cross-border power transmission. In this case, the APR power plant will feed into the Senegal River Basin Development Authority (OMVS) grid connecting Mali, Mauritania and Senegal.

A second attack in the Algerian ‘hydrocarbons fortress’ and an emerging narrative in which western governments see an ‘arc of instability’ spanning the Sahara/Sahel region means IOCs must reassess their attitudes to regional risk following the traumatic In Aménas gas plant siege, write Jon Marks and John Hamilton.

The Algerian security services achieved their main aim of eliminating the Islamist militants who had invaded the In Aménas gas processing plant, but the loss of life and wider concerns about deteriorating Sahara/Sahel risk pose critical questions about operations in the region.

Coming only days after France committed troops and its air force to overturning dramatic advances made by Islamist militants in Mali, the 16 January attack on a gas production facility at In Amenas, in south-eastern Algeria, underlined the security threat and political volatility that now blight the Saharan/Sahel region. Never during the 1990s conflict with radical Islam did a major Algerian hydrocarbons facility face such attack.

Six months into the crisis which tore up Mali, its neighbours are still debating security strategies to resolve a conflict which threatens regional stability and foreign economic interests. Despite the lack of outright consensus, the international community is increasingly leaning towards a political exit through negotiation with militant groups, leaving armed intervention off the table, writes Oualid Khelifi

The suicide bombing of a gendarmerie barracks in Ouargla and shock jihadist victories in Mali are fuelling unease about the future of the vast Sahara-Sahel region, adding to the uncertain political mood in Algiers, write Oualid Khelifi and Jon Marks

Dramatic events across the Sahel have heightened concerns about instability and security threats across the region, where criminal networks and jihadist cells – including Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) splinter groups – have been increasingly active from southern Algeria to northern Nigeria

Despite the fragile security situation, northern Mali is still attracting exploration interest, but companies active in the region face a new challenge from a resurgent Tuareg rebellion

Société de Gestion de l'Energie de Manantali (Sogem) is seeking an independent operator to run the Manantali dam, the planned Félou dam and related transmission network

Dakar port has opened a new container terminal, described by Dubai-based developer DP World as West Africa’s largest and most modern. Following a concession agreement signed in 2007,

Hélios Energie chief executive Karim Megherbi told a mid-November workshop in Brussels that the French solar company had lined up a pipeline of 100MW of photovoltaic (PV) projects in sub-Saharan