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WAPP interconnection loan; Japan aid pledges; French line of credit for ONE;

Faced with a fuel bill that has risen to a projected MD64bn ($8.7bn) this year from MD27bn in 2004, Morocco is looking to increase the role of renewable energy in the country’s generation mix.

REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Brazilians push for biofuels projects; EGYPT: USTDA grant for petrochems; MOROCCO: Samir financing

The high global cost of oil and gas exploration has slowed the pace of work on some of the Gulf of Guinea’s smaller plays, and several blocks secured at the height of industry excitement about the region are now changing hands as the original licensees review their positions. Many of the newcomers are Australians, originally tempted into Africa’s east coast and now looking west. For a number of players,

Cegelec to expand grid at Arzew; Work starts at Kpone plant; Strategic energy study; Coal miner plans 500MW power plant; Higher tariffs; AFC backs power project; Mittal in deal with Coal of Africa; Miners complain of power shortages

CityView to work with local operator; PA completes MPS farm-in; Dry well on WEEM; Noble spuds Benita appraisal; Chinese partners; New reconnaissance licence for Czechs; Kunene well spuds; Key teams up with Pancontinental; Tower Block 5 drilling plans

The deadline is looming for countries to submit claims to the United Nations to extend their maritime boundaries beyond the usual 200 nautical miles to include submarine areas that are the prolongation of their land mass

Portugal’s Escom to build Luapasso; Norway sends gensets to Liberia; Work starts on Aïn Beni Mathar; Senegalese rural electrification; India to finance Isimba project

Office National de l’Electricité (ONE) has invited prequalified companies to submit proposals for a 300MW wind farm to be developed near the southern coastal town of Tarfaya (AE 121/7).

ANGOLA: CMIC contract for Luanda grid; KENYA: Bamburi Cement to increase biomass use; LIBERIA: Stanley to study Mount Coffee expansion; MOROCCO: Abdelmoumen STEP deadline; MOZAMBIQUE: EDM seeks bids to extend grid; NIGERIA: Chinese to build first coal-fired plant; TANZANIA: AfDB funding; UGANDA: French JV to supply Bujagali; UPDEA: European meeting to discuss reform study

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

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.

DR CONGO: More Chinese drop in; MOROCCO: More private wind power from DLM; MOZAMBIQUE: Brazilians to build Mphanda Nkuwa; NAMIBIA: Uranium miner plans 12MW heat from acid plant

Among the larger Saudi-controlled companies active in the African resources boom is Stockholm-based Svenska Petroleum, which belongs to Saudi/Ethiopian magnate Mohammed Hussein Al-Amoudi – one of that group of Saudi businessmen born into non-Saudi or marginal communities who have emerged as very significant players, usually by being linked to senior Saudi princes as ‘men of business’ during part, at least, of their careers.

AfDB – first private equity investment in Maghreb; CADF $90m for four projects; US EX-IM Sub-Saharan Africa Advisory Committee