Search results

Zambia’s Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) has consolidated its reputation as a significant emerging developer across Africa by finalising plans for the construction of a 128MW heavy fuel oil power plant, with some associated distribution infrastructure, to supply the Sierra Leonean capital, Freetown. After a year of negotiations, CEC’s power purchase agreement was ratified by parliament in early June, and the developer expects financing to be led by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation, managing director for corporate development Michael Tarney told the Africa Energy Forum (AEF) in Istanbul on 19 June.

The board of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) declared Sierra Leone EITI compliant on 26 April. EITI compliance means that the country must regularly publish the government’s revenues from its natural resources, and Sierra Leone is required to produce its 2012 EITI report by the end of this year. “I hope this will lead to a process of reform that brings real benefits to the people of Sierra Leone,” said EITI board chair Clare Short. “EITI compliance does not mean that the country’s natural resources are managed in a fully transparent manner, but it is a step on the way and means that citizens can see what revenues the country gets from these resources.”

AOG affiliate PetroJetty has given Dutch engineering company BAM International and its South African joint venture partner Stefanutti Stocks a contract for the engineering, procurement and construction of a petroleum jetty at the Kissy Oil Terminal in Freetown. PetroJetty is the local affiliate of trading and downstream company Oryx Energies. The new jetty will provide a key import and export facility for the country, and a modern export base for ethanol from the Addax Bioenergy bioethanol project at Makeni.

Efforts to improve co-ordination between Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Côte d’Ivoire are gaining momentum, with plans for the Mano River Union (MRU) to hold a senior-level meeting to promote electricity interconnection, probably in Abidjan in June, MRU secretary-general Saran Daraba Kaba told African Energy. There is growing support for development of interconnections between the four states as part of the West African Power Pool (WAPP), Guinean finance minister Mohamed Diaré told a 4 April Belgium-Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce meeting in Brussels.

A subsidiary of Sharjah-based Mulk Holdings has won a contract to develop a 6MW solar park in Freetown. Mulk Oasis Gulf Investment will provide engineering, procurement and construction services for the project. The solar photovoltaic panels will be supplied by Masdar PV, owned by Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Development Company. The Freetown Solar Park is one of six projects selected from over 80 applications for the first funding cycle of the International Renewable Energy Agency project facility funded by the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development.

Mineral sands producer Sierra Rutile has signed a memorandum of understanding with Smol Pawa Sierra Leone to be a cornerstone purchaser for the 11-14MW run-of-river Moyamba hydro project. The power project will be located at the Singimi Falls on the Gbangba River, within 20km of Sierra Rutile’s mining operations in Moyamba district, in the south-west of Sierra Leone. The project will be developed as a public-private partnership with the government, and will supply power to Moyamba, Njala University and Sierra Rutile.

Denham Capital’s new vehicle Endeavor Energy has entered into a joint development agreement with Joule Africa to develop the $700m Bumbuna Phase II Power Project, adding 202MW to Bumbuna HEP’s existing 50MW. Endeavor was set up in June following an initial commitment from the private equity firm’s $3bn Fund VI (AE 257/6). Endeavor has agreed to fund the remaining development costs for the project and expects to invest up to 75% of Bumbuna Phase II’s equity at financial close (estimated $150m). Endeavor is led by Houston-based Sean Long, a former head of Enron International’s operations in Africa.

The African Development Bank board approved a financing package on 6 November for the Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea (CLSG) electricity networks interconnection project. The total financing by the African Development Fund, Fragile States Facility and Nigeria Trust Fund amounts to €145m, representing roughly 40% of the total project cost. The project will secure power supply for the four Mano River Union member countries, and will be implemented between 2014 and 2017. The CLSG project involves the construction of about 1,400km of high voltage (225 kV) line to connect the national networks of the four countries.

AOG subsidiary Addax Bioenergy is close to completing Sierra Leone’s first independent power project, a 32MW plant generating electricity from ethanol. The plant is part of a $300m project launched in 2008 which includes a 10,000ha sugar cane estate to produce 85,000m3/yr of ethanol, mostly for export, and some 120GWh/yr of renewable power (AE 263/8). A minimum of 15MW of surplus power from the ethanol plant will be supplied to the National Power Authority (NPA) grid, representing about 20% of Sierra Leone’s modest generation capacity. Isgec John Thompson is providing the power plant, while Cegelec will build 10km of high-voltage transmission lines. 



Russia’s Lukoil Overseas has found an “oil-saturated reservoir” with its first exploration well offshore Sierra Leone. The well on the Savannah structure on SL-5-11 was drilled to more than 4,700 metres in water depths of more than 2,000 metres using the semisubmersible Ocean Rig Eirik Raude (AE 262/14). Lukoil said oil-saturated reservoirs were identified and oil samples were taken from the Turonian sands.

Addax Bioenergy’s Makeni project in Sierra Leone has been registered as a clean development mechanism (CDM) project with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the first project in Sierra Leone to do so. 
The $300m complex, which consists of a sugarcane estate, a bioethanol refinery and a biomass fuelled cogeneration facility, has been criticised by local and international lobby groups.

Russia’s Lukoil has spudded a deep-water well on the Savannah prospect on Block SL-5-11, using the Eirik Raude rig. The well, which spudded on 12 September, will be drilled to more than 4,700 metres, in water depths exceeding 2,000 metres. Lukoil took over as block operator in June 2011, alongside Nigeria’s Oranto Petroleum, and PanAtlantic Energy, the successor company to Vanco Energy Company.

Joule Africa plans to release tender documents later this year for the second phase of the Bumbuna hydro project. The US Joule Investments Group subsidiary told African Energy six companies had pre-qualified for the project and had confirmed they planned to bid. Tender documents are awaiting government approval. Joule hopes to bring the extension on stream in 2017-18, depending on when the project reaches financial close. Energy from Bumbuna will be sold to a central state-owned buyer.

The Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) and the Sierra Leone government are requesting proposals from consultants interested in providing procurement, legal, advisory, monitoring, administration or reporting services to the government for the $786m Bumbuna hydroelectric power plant extension. The services are being funded with technical assistance funding from the EU-Africa Infrastructure Trust Fund.

Transparency International’s 2013 Global Corruption Barometer was released on 9 July. It included information on 95 countries, including 23 African countries. In the section ‘Percentage of people who report having paid a bribe to one of eight services’ (education, judicial, medical/health, police, registry and permit services, utilities, tax, land services) in the past 12 months, Sierra Leone performed the worst of the 95, with 84% of respondents saying they had.