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ALGERIA/MOROCCO: 1,000MW, 400kV interconnection; BURUNDI: Spare parts contract; EGYPT: World Bank lines up Giza North CCGT financing; EGYPT: Nuclear power plant purchase; LIBYA: Gecol asks Hyundai to build Tripoli West; MADAGASCAR: Rural electrification equipment tender; SUDAN: Khartoum wants nuclear ‘training’ reactor

San Leon-Island merger proposal; Ultra-deep Transocean drillship starts work off Angola

MAURITANIA: IMF, World Bank to resume lending; IFC: Kuwait Energy Company wins funding; WEST AFRICA: AfDB funds fibre-optic cable

State sector leaders seem determined to merge the kingdom’s two major utility companies, but the prospect of opposition from labour unions and in parliament, and the need to confront complex pension fund problems, suggest Onee’s creation is not yet a done deal, write Our Casablanca Correspondent and Jon Marks

European funding agencies have teamed up to support a major regional clean energy plan, in an important step towards large-scale solar power development in the Sahara, writes François Misser in Brussels.

The administration is moving to strengthen the institutional focus on Morocco’s wind-focused renewables drive, with new legislation going through the works to encourage alternative energy, more private and state-funded projects under way, and a significant appointment to head the Centre de Développement des Energies Renouvelables (CDER), which King Mohammed VI agreed should become the state agency driving renewables policy following a national conference on energy strategy earlier this year.

Moroccans are seeking effective project and policy implementation while the authorities are rethinking electricity and gas industry structures yet again, writes Jon Marks.

The state Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines (Onhym) has granted Ireland’s Island Oil & Gas and London-based Serica Energy two petroleum agreements for the contiguous areas of Sidi Moussa Offshore and Foum Draa Offshore in the Agadir Basin.

Morocco continues to consider gas supply options, which include building a liquefied natural gas (LNG) regasification plant to allow it to reduce its dependence on offtake through the Maghreb-Europe Gasline (GME) from Algeria to Spain.

ANGOLA: New find on Block 31; ANGOLA: First oil from Morsa West; ANGOLA: Total gives CGGVeritas 4D inversion project; CHAD: New find for CNPC; EGYPT: BG begins Phase V gas production from WDDM; EGYPT: East Mediterranean Gas in repricing deal; LIBYA: Petrobras drills in Area 18; MOROCCO: New gas find for Circle; NIGERIA: Oando wins swamp drilling contract; NIGERIA: Acergy to revamp Mobil platforms

New find on Block 31 Sonangol and BP have announced an 18th discovery on ultra-deep Block 31 with the Oberon-1 well. Located in the southern part of the block some 4.3km north-east of the Dione discovery,the well was drilled in a water depth of 1,624metres, reaching a total depth of 3,622 metres. Test results confirmed the capacity of the reservoir to flow more than 5,000 b/d under production conditions.First oil from Morsa West Process system integrators DPS have announced the start of oil production from Sonangol’s shallow water Morsa West field. The marginal field development project was awarded to Angola Drilling.

Total and its partners have contracted CGGVeritas for a seismic reservoir characterisation project involving the inversion of 4D seismic data covering the Dalia,Rosa,Girassol and Jasmine fields. CGGVeritas subsidiary Hampson-Russell Software & Services will undertake the inversion work. “Having proved this technology in the North Sea, this is an important opportunity to apply it inWest Africa,” said Philippe Doyen,Vice President, R&D, Hampson-Russell Services. “With the increasing number of 4D vintages available over producing fields, global4D inversion is better constrained and yields results that are more readily interpretable in terms of production effects.

San Leon Energy has signed a three-year memorandum of understanding with the Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines (Onhym) for the 6,000km2 Tarfaya oil shale project.

Tunisia and Morocco look to gas for increased capacity

Morocco has won investment from Abu Dhabi to expand its coal-fired generation capacity, but is also looking to domestic and imported gas as well as renewables to meet its growing energy needs, Energy Minister Amina Benkhadra told Nadine Marroushi.