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The African Development Bank (AfDB)-led Desert-to-Power (DtP) initiative is gathering momentum with a $150m investment by the Green Climate Fund. The investment is expected to be followed by further commitments from the AfDB to take the Desert to Power G5 Financing Facility – which covers Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger – to $379.6m, to support projects across the supply chain.

 TGS in mid-September announced the start of a new survey in the MSGBC Basin, offshore Mauritania, continuing the Norwegian seismic specialist’s operations in the region.

New York Stock Exchange- and London Stock Exchange-listed Kosmos Energy has secured additional funds to cover future development costs on the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) gas project in offshore Mauritania and Senegal, via the sale and leaseback of a floating, production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) to its partner BP plc.

Senegalese President Macky Sall paid a 48-hour official visit to Nouakchott on 12-13 July, flying on his new jet the Langue de barbarie, to further develop relations with President Mohammed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani.

CWP Global’s 30GW Aman project is projected to cost about $40bn. It will be located on a desert site of approximately 8,500km2, comprising 18GW of wind and 12GW of solar, a water desalination plant and an installation to synthesise hydrogen and ammonia. When complete, there will be nearly 2,000 wind turbines spaced 3km apart, with a solar park covering 28,000ha of non-arable land. Construction will extend over an eight- to ten-year period. The power will be transmitted via medium- and high-tension lines to feed the electrolysers on the coast.

As the hype around hydrogen gets ever louder, governments and developers are putting forward grandiose plans to manufacture green hydrogen – ‘the new oil and gas’ – across the continent. African Energy has been sceptical about the hydrogen boom’s relevance to economies that are hard pressed to finance basic needs, but high hopes are being generated in countries like Mauritania and Namibia, where schemes to install an unimaginable 65GW of hydrogen-driven capacity are promised, writes John Hamilton.

The least challenged by jihadist insurgency among the G5S states, the Mauritanian military is seen by western governments as a solid ally. President Mohammed Ould Ghazouani was a longstanding defence minister, supporting ex-president Mohammed Ould Abdelaziz – who now faces charges of misusing state funds

Ex-president Mohammed Ould Abdelaziz used an interview with Paris-based Jeune Afrique (JA) to deny he had ever taken “a single ouguiya fraudulently” from state funds. The regime of his successor – and for many decades close ally – Mohammed Ould Ghazouani has claimed Abdelaziz mismanaged public funds over his two terms (2009-19).

UK-based Cairn Energy signed an agreement on 6 April to operate a licence on offshore Block C7, taking a 90% working interest. The large block is in a proven hydrocarbon province, the company said in a brief statement.

The G5 Sahel countries have received new support for solar generation in the Desert to Power scheme promoted by the African Development Bank (AfDB). The AfDB’s stated ambition is for the G5 Sahel countries – Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania, Mali and Niger – to harness their potential to create “the world’s largest solar zone”. The AfDB aims to increase on- and off-grid solar generation capacity by 10GW, to transform the livelihoods of some 250m people across the 11-state Sahel region.

Golar LNG has announced a new project schedule following the lifting of force majeure on BP’s Greater Tortue Ahmeyim gas project on the maritime border between Mauritania and Senegal. Golar said the target connection date for the connection of the Gimi floating LNG vessel had been extended by 11 months from the original 2022 target date.

Total has given Shearwater GeoServices a contract for a large towed streamer 3D acquisition and fast-track processing project covering 6,000km2 in blocks C-15 and C-31.The two blocks lie in deeper water outboard from BP and Kosmos Energy’s acreage which includes the Marsouin and Orca gas discoveries that could potentially be developed as a third LNG hub, in addition to Greater Tortue Ahmeyim on the border with Senegal and Yakaar, within Senegalese waters.

BP has said its recent three-well drilling campaign offshore Mauritania and Senegal “has further confirmed the world-class scale of the gas resource in the region”. Three appraisal wells drilled this year, GTA-1, Yakaar-2 and Orca-1, encountered gas in high-quality reservoirs in all nine hydrocarbon-bearing zones targeted. The wells, the first to be operated by BP after it took over as operator from Kosmos Energy, encountered 160 metres of total gas pay.

Kosmos Energy has announced a gas discovery with the Orca-1 exploration well in the BirAllah area offshore Mauritania. Kosmos said Orca and the earlier Marsouin-1 well had de-risked enough gas to support a third LNG hub in addition to Greater Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) and Yakaar. Wood Mackenzie said Orca was the third-largest discovery worldwide so far this year and the largest deep-water find. The well was drilled 125km offshore in 2,510 metres of water to a total depth of around 5,266 metres in the same fairway as the GTA and Yakaar gas discoveries.

Total has extended its contract for Pacific Drilling’s Pacific Santa Ana drillship for one well offshore Mauritania. Pacific’s 13 August fleet status report said the contract runs from August to September 2019.