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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.

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.

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.

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.

Energy and water resources minister Oluniyi Robbin-Coker is trying to mobilise limited resources to build generation capacity and overhaul a decrepit transmission and distribution system. With demand from the mining industry rising and access to power at just 6%, the government has set an ambitious target of installing 1GW of capacity in the next seven years. Sierra Leone has 92MW of installed capacity, including the 50MW Bumbuna dam inaugurated in November 2009, though the country has an estimated 2GW of hydro potential.

Following months of negotiations with Sierra Leone’s government, Zambia’s Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) has taken over a project to develop a 128MW thermal plant in the Western Area. Copperbelt Energy subsidiary CEC Africa Investments Limited has entered into an agreement with Lebanon’s TCQ Power Limited to acquire a majority stake in project company Blue Flare Power SL Ltd, which was set up in 2011.

Investment bank Renaissance Capital is suing African Minerals in London’s Commercial Court for £25m of unpaid advisory fees relating to a fundraising in 2010. The dispute centres on a £170m cash injection by Chinese state-owned China Railway Materials Commercial Corporation to develop Sierra Leone’s Tonkolili iron ore mine, a deal for which Renaissance Capital claims it is owed substantial fees for facilitating.

The World Bank is considering a $25m loan to support the Sierra Leone Energy Access Project. The appraisal process is expected to be completed by 25 March in time to go before the World Bank’s board for approval on 16 May. The project has been designed to complement the work of the $16m Sierra Leone Infrastructure Development Fund, which was expected to be put to the board in December .

Israeli miner Elenilto has expanded its presence in West Africa, winning the operatorship of Senegal’s Offshore Sud Shallow Block and being shortlisted for a phosphate mining licence in Togo.