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Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) and India’s Vedanta Limited signed an agreement on 4 July under which EGA will supply Vedanta from 2019 with bauxite from its mining project in the Boké region. First bauxite exports from EGA’s $1.4bn Guinea Alumina Corporation (GAC) project are expected in H2 2019. Once full ramp-up is achieved, GAC is expected to produce some 12m t/yr of bauxite.

The government on 30 June announced a 25% increase in the pump price of diesel and kerosene. The decision has been sharply criticised for lack of consultation, for its timing at 10pm on a Saturday during the football World Cup, and for its probable impact in a country where more than 57% of the population lives on less than $1/day. Fuel prices have risen sharply from GNF8,000/litre ($0.89) to GNF10,000, on the orders of President Alpha Condé.

Private equity investor Denham Capital on 27 March announced that Tè Power Company (TPC) had reached financial close for the $121m Tè project and begun construction of the 50MW greenfield thermal power plant in Conakry. Financial close of the project’s $89m debt financing took several months longer than expected, reflecting the complexities of launching Guinea’s first independent power project to be project financed by a development finance institution (DFI).

Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz’s mining company BSG Resources (BSGR) has voluntarily entered administration to protect it from legal disputes related to the Simandou project in Guinea. Business advisory firm BDO said the Royal Court of Guernsey had appointed two of its representatives as joint administrators on 6 March. “Our primary objective is to return BSGR to solvency and to ensure that all creditors will be paid in full.

Renewed load-shedding brought groups of angry youths onto the streets of Conakry in early January, protesting in several districts by erecting barricades and throwing stones at vehicles. Officials blame the power cuts on the failure of Electricité de Guinée (EDG) to pay its suppliers of fuel and lubricants for its thermal units.According to a government source, the state owes at least €30m ($35m) in unpaid invoices to various suppliers, including Mauritania’s Star Oil.

Texan junior Hyperdynamics filed for bankruptcy on 22 December, after a Chinese investor pulled out of a deal to buy 53% of the company following the failure of drilling offshore Guinea. Hyperdynamics announced in November that it had reached a definitive agreement to sell 40m shares to CLNG Limited (Hong Kong) for $6m, but in December the Guinean government turned down its request to extend the licence, which was the company’s sole asset.

InfraCo Africa, part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group, announced on 15 January that it has committed $3.1m to the 40MW Khoumagueli solar photovoltaic (PV) project. The commitment came with the signing of a joint development agreement with Solvéo Guinea Renewable Energy – the project company – and its owners Solvéo Energie SAS and Solvéo International Investments, both part of Solvéo Group. InfraCo Africa will take a 45% stake in the project, which is targeting financial close in Q1 2019 and commercial operations in Q1 2020, with the remainder held by Solvéo.

Hyperdynamics announced on 3 November that it had reached a definitive agreement to sell 40m shares, or 53% of the company, to CLNG Limited (Hong Kong) for $6m. The Houston-based minnow has drilled two unsuccessful wells offshore Guinea, but interest in the area has been piqued by Total’s big study agreement for most of the rest of the country’s offshore.

The Agence Française de Développement (AFD), on behalf of the National Directorate of Energy of the Ministry of Energy and Hydraulics of Guinea, invites expressions of interest by 8 November from qualified consultants to carry out feasibility studies and environmental and social impact assessments as part of a national programme to develop the West African state’s electricity sector.

Total has added to its presence in Mauritania and Senegal with a technical evaluation agreement offshore Guinea covering 55,000km2 of deep and ultra-deep waters. In Namibia, the French major will acquire 70% of Impact Oil & Gas’s interests in Block 2913B, while in South Africa, it will acquire 77.78% of Impact’s interests in the Orange Basin Deep technical cooperation permit (TCP), once an exploration right is granted over the area. Impact will retain the other 22.2%.

In a last-ditch bid to hang on to the licence, Hyperdynamics is claiming its Fatala well was a discovery, despite initially announcing it had not encountered hydrocarbons. The licence was due to expire on 21 September unless a discovery was made. Nigeria’s South Atlantic Petroleum, which farmed in to the licence in March, has withdrawn, but Hyperdynamics said it would be seeking a two-year appraisal period. However the company, which struggled to find funding and partners to drill Fatala, is likely to find financing appraisal work a challenge.

US minnow Hyperdynamics faces an uncertain future following the failure of a second well offshore Guinea. The company said on 8 September that the Fatala well, which targeted a deep-water fan complex, had failed to find hydrocarbons.Under a one-year licence extension agreement with the government reached in September 2016, the licence was due to expire on 21 September 2017 unless a discovery was made. Hyperdynamics had hoped to be able to drill a follow-up well on the Bamboo prospect, but the company has struggled to raise the funds for Fatala.

Swiss-based Brahms Oil Refineries has awarded SNC-Lavalin a contract for front-end engineering design (FEED) for a 10,000 b/d oil refinery at the Guinean port of Kamsar to produce diesel, gasoline and jet A fuel for sale to the domestic market. The FEED will provide a cost estimate ahead of a final investment decision for the project expected in Q3 2017, and the contract has scope for development into an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) award, SNC-Lavalin said.

Feasibility studies for the 90MW Fomi dam project on the Niger River have been submitted to the Ministry of Mines and Geology and to President Alpha Condé by Yellow River Engineering Consulting Company director-general Yin Dewen. The project dates back to the colonial era (the site was discovered in 1922), and development will require $590m of financing, according to the feasibility studies.A source close to the project told African Energy that the main challenge was the dam’s impact on local communities, and its high cost relative to capacity was a consequence of efforts to minimise this.

As Hyperdynamics prepares to start drilling Guinea’s second offshore well, the government has announced that the country’s first offshore licensing round will open in October. Office Nationale du Pétrole chief executive Diakaria Koulibaly told the Oil & Gas Council’s NOC Assembly in Paris on 12 June that Guinea was hoping recent discoveries offshore Senegal and Mauritania would encourage interest. He said the round would be open for six months from October 2017, with awards expected by October 2018. Companies will be able to submit bids on all open blocks.