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The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) on 26 September approved a loan of €18m ($20m) and a partial risk guarantee for the 32MWp first phase of the Djermaya solar PV plant. The plant, Chad’s first utility-scale renewable power plant and first public-private partnership in the power sector, will be built at a site 30km north of N’Djamena by a developer consortium of Aldwych International, working on behalf of InfraCo Africa, and France’s Smart Energies.

Chad’s upstream sector is experiencing renewed interest thanks to asset sales, an upturn in crude output which the government says rose to 126,000 b/d in H1 2019, and an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that has helped to stabilise the oil-dependent economy. While production peaked at 180,000 b/d in 2005, the Chad-Cameroon export pipeline has 225,000 b/d capacity, offering significant space for new players.

AMEA Power chairman Hussain Nowais on 1 February signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to develop a 120MW solar project in Chad. The plan is for a turnkey project to be delivered in October 2020. The agreement was signed with petroleum and energy minister Mahamat Hamid Koua, a former deputy secretary-general of the government and trade minister who was appointed the previous day. Koua replaced Aziza Mariam El-Bashir, former deputy director-general of Société des Hydrocarbures du Tchad, who was appointed on 21 January and sacked ten days later.

President Idriss Déby Itno’s son Séïd Idriss Déby Itno was named director-general of state oil company Société des Hydrocarbures du Tchad (SHT) on 24 December. He was previously deputy director-general of the Djermaya refinery, a post also occupied at one stage by his cousin Haoua Daoussa Déby. He was at the centre of a row with the Chinese management last year over positions for Chadians at the refinery. At SHT Déby replaces Tahir Hamid Nguilin, who was previously a top official of the Banque des Etats de l’Afrique Centrale.

The European Commission has agreed to provide a grant of around €30m ($34m) to the African Development Bank (AfDB) for a 225kV interconnection project between Cameroon and Chad. The deal was agreed on 20 December but only announced in January. The project involves a 700km line from Ngaoundéré to Maroua in Cameroon and on to N’djamena and a second 250km line connecting Maroua to Mogrom in Chad and then completing the loop at N’djamena.

One region seems above all others to stubbornly buck the positive political and economic trends recorded over two decades by African Energy: it comprises the six Communauté Economique et Monétaire de l’Afrique Centrale (Cemac) countries and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Events in the last month, including a failed coup in Gabon and contested elections in DRC, underline Central Africa’s chronic crisis of leadership. Such political behaviours are increasingly seen as an anachronism in a world structured by social media, as well as by older social bonds and traditional patterns of coercion by elites.

A consortium of InfraCo Africa and Smart Energies International signed a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) on 9 August with the Ministry of Energy and Société Nationale d’Electricité (SNE) for the 60MWp Djermaya Solar project. “The PPA marks a key milestone in the development of Djermaya Solar, enabling the project to raise construction financing and demonstrating the joint commitment of all parties to developing renewable energy in Chad,” InfraCo said.

President Idriss Déby Itno on 4 April formally launched construction of a 36m litre capacity fuel storage depot close to the Djermaya refinery. The Société Nationale des Dépôts Pétroliers, to be built by French company Parlym International, aims to create a strategic reserve to improve security of supply. The CFA12.9bn ($23m) development cost will be met by Société des Hydrocarbures du Tchad (SHT) with financing from Douala-based Commercial Bank Group’s Cameroon and Chad operations.

Delonex Energy has contracted BGP to acquire 400km of 2D seismic and 1,200km2 of 3D over Block H, which it acquired from United Hydrocarbon International, along with DOC and DOD in the Doba Basin and Largeau III. New business adviser Harry Davis told Africa Upstream the acquisition closed on 22 September and the seismic contract was signed on 23 September.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has confirmed its intention to contribute to the financing of the Djermaya solar plant. AfDB vice-president for power, energy, climate change and green growth Amadou Hott visited President Idriss Déby Itno on 5 July to discuss financing for the project, and several other areas of potential cooperation. An AfDB statement said the bank also plans to support other energy sector projects such as the electrical interconnection between Chad and Cameroon, and the rehabilitation of the Societe Nationale d’Electricité thermal plant.

ExxonMobil has secured an extension of its Doba Basin licence until 2050 after settling a dispute over royalties that saw a court in N’djamena fine the company and its consortium partner Petronas $76bn in October last year.A signing ceremony was held at the Hilton hotel in N’djamena on 9 June. There was no immediate word on whether the agreement included a financial settlement and, if so, how much was paid.

Houston-based ERHC Energy has relinquished the BDS 2008 licence in the Doba Basin after failing to agree more favourable licence terms. President and chief executive Peter Ntephe told ITE Group’s Africa Independents’ Forum in London on 25 May that the licence had much better technical prospectivity than Kenya, but the perceived country risk of Chad was too high.

Delonex Energy has agreed with Canada’s United Hydrocarbon International Corporation (UHIC) to acquire its United Hydrocarbon Chad subsidiary for $35m, committing to a new work programme in the Doba Basin and Lake Chad.UHIC holds the DOC and DOD blocks in the Doba Basin in southern Chad, Lake Chad Block H in western Chad, and Largeau Block III in central Chad.

French consortium Starsol has issued an invitation for consultancy services to assist with plans for the development, construction and operation of a solar photovoltaic (PV) plant near N’Djamena. The consortium, comprising Paris-based solar energy project developer Newsolar Invest, engineering company CIEC Monaco and infrastructure and renewable energy project financing arranger Arborescence Capital, received a $780,000 grant from the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa in March 2015 for the development of a 40MW park as the first phase of the Starsol Solar PV project.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Energy has issued an international tender offering six blocks for licensing in the Erdis Basin in the north of the country near the Libyan border. While Chad has production from the Doba Basin in the south, and from the Ronier and Mimosa fields in the west, northern Chad is almost entirely unexplored, although Erdis Block IV and Largeau Block V are licensed to companies controlled by Ali Modu Sheriff, former governor of Borno State in Nigeria.