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Five more memoranda of understanding (MoUs) were signed in Rabat on 5 December, bringing more partners into the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline (NMGP) project.

United States-based Bitgreen is reportedly aiming to raise $10m-20m in debt financing for the 27MW Betmai hydroelectric power (HEP) project, using its blockchain fundraising platform.

Belgium’s International Montage Maintenance Group has won the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to develop a 22MW power plant at Gerald Group’s Marampa iron ore mine in Sierra Leone.

The multi-donor Universal Energy Facility has issued a Wave 2 tender for mini-grid projects in Democratic Republic of Congo, while results are awaited on its call for bids in Madagascar and Sierra Leone.

Winch Energy has completed and commissioned three solar PV and storage mini-grids in Alikalia, Kondebaya and Sambia-Bendugu villages. The mini-grids were installed as part of the second phase of Winch’s 24-site mini-grid project in Sierra Leone

The three core Mano River Union countries are confronted by major decisions that will shape their future direction, from potential progress on major resources plays led by Guinea’s huge Simandou iron ore mining and infrastructure development and Liberia’s struggles with major investor Arcelor Mittal to Sierra Leone’s political crisis. All three have searching questions of governance and equity for their populations, writes Jon Marks with correspondents in Freetown, Conakry and Monrovia.

Government agency the Petroleum Directorate of Sierra Leone (PDSL) has extended its fifth offshore licensing round until 27 January 2023, giving the positive spin that there is “increased interest in the upstream sector in West Africa”. Potential bidders can review 29,000km of 2D and 11,000km2 of 3D seismic data.

The West African Transco CLSG transmission network is working to build a second 243MW line, begin energy trade with indebted Liberia and integrate C&I customers and renewable energy sources into the sub-regional network that covers Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown has been connected to Transco’s Côte d’Ivoire-Liberia-Sierra Leone-Guinea (CLSG) transmission network, following the completion of synchronisation tests at the Bikongor and Bumbuna substations. In December, President Julius Maada Bio commissioned the service at Teloma, powering the southern and eastern regions of the country.

The second phase of the Sierra Leone mini-grids project being undertaken by Winch Energy is expected to be completed in the coming months, according to vice president for business development Chris Kanani.

Nigeria’s Innoson Oil & Gas  has revealed the estimated unrisked gross prospective recoverable resources of its offshore concession in Sierra Leone. The announcement follows a recently-concluded evaluation by reservoir consultancy Ryder Scott Company.  

The Rockefeller Foundations’ Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet has committed $50m to the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All)’s Universal Energy Facility (UEF).

UK-listed junior Wildcat Petroleum has won a non-exclusive licence to evaluate 20 offshore oil and gas blocks in Sierra Leone.

Government agency the Petroleum Directorate of Sierra Leone (PDSL) is auctioning 136 oil and gas blocks in the Sierra Leone Basin to international investors. Petroleum Directorate of Sierra Leone (PDSL) director general Foday Mansaray told African Energy the country was “on the cusp of major oil and gas discovery”.

The commercial use of thermolysis or pyrolysis to convert organic waste into biofuels, syngas or pure hydrogen is still experimental in Africa, although the underlying technology is relatively well-established elsewhere. Most of the 22 operating biogas power plants recorded in African Energy Live Data use other methods. Early adopters of the technology include the Ford Silverton plant in Pretoria, H2-Industries and Oak Group Holdings in Egypt, Ghana’s Kumasi Technical University and the British Nigerian Pyrogenesys-led consortium. Success for any one of them will open wide new commercial opportunities, while also helping to address pressing environmental concerns.