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Opposition senators have questioned the legitimacy of deals signed with South Africa establishing the Agence pour le Développement et la Promotion du Projet Grand Inga (ADPI) to oversee the Grand Inga hydroelectric project, and consolidating South Africa’s role as the scheme’s anchor partner. President Joseph Kabila Kabange signed a decree establishing ADPI last October, and appointed former electricity minister Bruno Kapandji Kalala to head the new agency, working out of the presidency.

Democratic Republic of Congo catches the imagination of those who see its potential to drive Africa’s future through its mineral wealth, resourceful population and the Inga Falls hydroelectric resource. But grandiose visions tend to founder on rocky realities in this vast, extravagantly diverse country, where power politics and the global commodities price crash – which in early May forced the government to cut 2016 spending by some 22% – have deeply unsettled much of what remains of international business. In May, major investor Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Cobalt announced it was selling up.

Democratic Republic of Congo’s new hydrocarbons minister has rejected an agreement on the offshore Joint Development Zone (JDZ) with Angola and demanded compensation after an Angolan presidential decree in December transferred two fields out of the joint zone into Chevron’s Block 14. On 16 February, André Ngoi Mukena Lusa Diese sent a letter to his Angolan counterpart, José Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos, rejecting the two countries’ 30 July 2007 agreement for the exploration and production of hydrocarbons in the JDZ, a 10km-wide corridor across Angolan offshore blocks 1, 14, 15 and 31 (AE 264/17).

Energy and water resources minister Jeannot Matadi Nenga has said that at least three hydropower projects should come on stream by the end of 2017. The 9.3MW Kakobola dam on the Lukufu River in Bandundu province should be completed by Indian companies Angelique International and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd, “hopefully” by the end of Q1 2016 and “almost certainly” by the end of June, though this is at least three months behind the last announced schedule. Matadi Nenga said construction had not been easy, partly because the plant had to be built on a sandy riverbank.

Turbine rehabilitation at the Inga I and II plants is expected to increase available capacity to 1,225MW from 800MW this year, according to Société Nationale d’Electricité (Snel) managing director Eric Mbala Musanda.His comments at a New Year ceremony in Kinshasa on 21 January followed significant supply problems on 5 January when the breakdown of two turbines reduced output by 300MW.

Société Nationale d’Electricité (Snel) on 19 December took delivery of an Airbus H135 helicopter to monitor its 6,000km high-voltage transmission network in remote areas that cannot be accessed by road. The World Bank funded the purchase of the helicopter and the training of crews with up to €4.39m ($4.78m) as part of its support for the Southern African power market. The helicopter is expected to remain operational for 20 years, and has infrared and radar detection systems, said Airbus Helicopters Southern Africa managing director Alain Montalvo, who came to Kinshasa for a handover ceremony with Snel management.

Hydrocarbons minister Aimé Ngoy Mukena held talks on 30 November with Zhenghwei Technique Corporation managing director Tu Da Jun on a project for a new ministry building in Kinshasa and a proposed 100km products pipeline from the Zambian border to Lubumbashi.The Lubumbashi-Kasumbalesa pipeline would aim to cut transport costs by two thirds compared to tanker trucks, and to link up with other pipeline projects.

The government is seeking expressions of interest (EoIs) for a study of the Agency for the Development and Promotion of the Inga site (Adepi), the body charged with developing and promoting the Grand Inga hydro scheme. The contract is financed by a grant from the World Bank’s International Development Association for technical assistance for the development of the Inga 3 Basse Chute scheme. The government plans to develop Inga 3 Basse Chute via a public-private partnership, and is seeking a partner

A new discussion paper circulated by French engineer Alain Léautey has cast further doubt on the likely output of the Grand Inga hydroelectric scheme. In the analysis, titled Inga 3: utopie ou réalisme?, Léautey, who spent years working on the rehabilitation of Inga I and II for French engineering company Ingerop and Italy’s Franco Tosi, argues that the headline generation figure of 39GW-42GW for Grand Inga cited in studies and official documents from the Congolese government and its partners is highly questionable.

A concession agreement between the Congolese state and Brazilian-owned Construction, Finance & Engineering Congo (CFE Congo) for a 100MW hydropower project at Mbimbi Mayi Munene on the Kasai River in Western Kasai province was published in the official gazette on 1 August. The agreement was signed in Kinshasa on 26 June. The project, which will produce 30MW in a first phase, will supply power to the city of Tshikapa, a centre for alluvial gem mining, as well as the rest of Western Kasai and the neighbouring Bandundu province. The agreement also mentions the possibility of supplying a regional interconnection.

The government has published its long-awaited hydrocarbons law N° 15/012, setting out a simpler legal framework for the upstream oil and gas sector. No new licences have been awarded since 2010 while the new law was being drafted, and the process has been held up by disagreement between the national assembly and the senate. Under the new law, published on 1 August, exploration contracts are to be awarded through a tender process on the basis of technical and financial criteria established by the cabinet.

The delayed 9.3MW Kakobola dam on the Lukufu River in Bandundu province should be completed in December, enabling President Joseph Kabila to inaugurate it by year-end, minister of energy and water resources Jeannot Matadi Nenga said on 28 July. Local sources say the project has been held up by the theft of 10km of cables, as well as a delay by the Congolese government in disbursing its contribution to the $55m project.

Société Nationale d’Electricité (Snel) has called for expressions of interest from solar developers to install solar photovoltaic power plants of 100MW-200MW to link into the high-voltage grid in Katanga Province. The state utility says the mineral-rich province is facing a 765MW generation deficit and, although it has already held talks with some developers, more investment is needed. To help overcome this challenge developers must commit to completing projects within 24 months. Expressions of interest (in French) for AMI No 01/SNEL/DG/DAM/DDM/MEQ/2015/SC must be received in Kinshasa by 22 July, when there will be a public opening.

The Export-Import Bank of India has agreed two more loans totalling $144.44m to fund transmission and distribution infrastructure to evacuate power from the Katende and Kakobola dams being built by Angelique International Ltd (AIL) and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd.The letter of credit agreements were signed in Abidjan during the African Development Bank annual meetings on 28 May. One was for $109.94m for the evacuation of power from the 64MW Katende dam in Western Kasai, and the other for $34.5m for power distribution from the 9.3MW Kakobola dam.

Construction work on the 4,800MW Inga 3 project will not start until 2017 at the earliest, World Bank director of operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Ahmadou Moustapha Ndiaye told a 9 April news conference in Kinshasa. While not entirely surprising, this represents a new postponement as in March 2014 the World Bank had said it expected work to start by late 2016. For its part, the DRC government had originally promised the launch for October 2015, a date chosen more for political reasons than technical considerations.