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Kosmos Energy has announced a “significant, play-opening gas discovery” with the Tortue-1 exploration well in offshore Block C-8. The well, drilled in 2,700 metres of water to test the Tortue West prospect which forms part of the Greater Tortue Complex, intersected 107 metres of net hydrocarbon pay. A single gas pool was encountered in the primary Lower Cenomanian objective, comprised of three high-quality reservoirs totalling 88 metres in thickness over a gross hydrocarbon bearing interval of 161 metres.

Chevron subsidiary Chevron Mauritania Exploration Limited has reached agreement to acquire a 30% non-operated working interest in offshore blocks C8, C12 and C13 from Kosmos Energy. Kosmos is preparing to drill a well on the Tortue prospect, using the Atwood Achiever drillship. Chevron will not initially fund the well, but retains the option to participate in Tortue after the transaction is completed. Kosmos retains a 60% interest in the blocks and remains the operator, while state oil company Société Mauritanienne des Hydrocarbures et du Patrimoine Minier has a 10% carried interest.

Abu Dhabi-based renewable energy developer Masdar is to build seven solar PV projects totalling 12MW under a contract signed on 21 January with the Ministry of Petroleum, Energy, and Mines. The projects in the towns of Boutilimit, Aleg, Aioune, Akjoujt, Atar, Al Shami and Boulenour will, on average, meet 30% of each town’s electricity demand when completed by Q1 2016, according to a press statement. The plants, which will reduce reliance on diesel, are sized to provide additional generation capacity as demand rises following upgrades to the local grids.

The governments of Mauritania and Senegal are seeking expressions of interest for the construction of a 225kV transmission line between Nouakchott and Tobène, upgrading the connection between the two countries’ power grids. There are plans for Mauritania to export 125MW to Senegal from 2017. The line will be capable of carrying up to 250MW, to allow for future expansion. According to the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), Senelec charges the highest tariffs in the West African Economic and Monetary Union, and relies on significant government subsidies, of E180m ($240m) in 2012 and E120m in 2013.

The World Bank board approved guarantees for the Banda gas-to-power project on 29 May. The package comprises partial risk guarantees worth up to $261m and a Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency breach of contract guarantee of up to $585m for up to 20 years. The guarantees will not become effective until other legal agreements are signed, which can take a number of months following board approval. Timings for the project are uncertain as upstream operator Tullow Oil has yet to reach a final investment decision.

The World Bank board will decide on 22 May on a package of guarantees worth up to $846m for the Banda gas-to-power project. The scheme aims to supply natural gas from the offshore Banda field to a 300MW power plant located north of Nouakchott. The power will supply the mining industry and domestic and business consumers, and will be exported to neighbouring Senegal and Mali. The project aims to help address what the World Bank calls the “daunting energy challenges” facing all three countries, whose national utilities have become increasingly reliant on government support, damaging confidence in their ability to cover operating costs.

Tullow Oil has quietly shelved another planned well offshore Mauritania as it shifts its focus to lower cost exploration in East Africa and Norway. Tullow had been planning a four-well programme offshore Mauritania, talking up the region’s range of geological plays, but the first well, Frégate, suffered technical problems and cost $200m, and, in February, Tullow announced a change of overall exploration strategy. Tullow somewhat unconvincingly described Frégate, which failed to find commercial hydrocarbons, as a “technical breakthrough”, opening a new oil play in the Late Cretaceous, but the company dropped the planned fourth well from its schedule, and its latest corporate presentation, published earlier this month, shows that it has now also pushed back the third.

Tullow Oil says it is moving its focus away from costly deep-water exploration and looking to less expensive prospects while it waits for new cash flow from the TEN development offshore Ghana in 2016. The announcement coincided with news that the Frégate well offshore Mauritania had delivered only modest success, opening a new oil play in the Late Cretaceous Turbidites at a cost of $200m. Tullow said Mauritania was just one of six exploration campaigns the company was pursuing and it would focus its near-term efforts on Norway and East Africa.

Operator Repsol has spudded the first exploration well in onshore Block Ta10 in the Taoudeni Basin. Partner RWE Dea said the Ouguiya-1 well was being drilled by the Saipem 5893 drilling rig. Its primary targets are Precambrian formations, and the well is scheduled to be completed in Q2 2014. “We are very pleased that, together with our partner, we have commenced this well, which is both challenging from an engineering point as well as being of great interest in geological terms,” said RWE senior vice-president exploration Werner Schwarzhans.

With Tullow Oil’s shares trading at their lowest levels since 2009, results of the Frégate well currently drilling on Block 7 offshore Mauritania will be closely watched. Exploration elsewhere on the West African coast has not so far matched the spectacular success of Ghana, and Tullow cites Mauritania, as well as Côte d’Ivoire, as the region’s best prospects. Frégate spudded in mid-August, and with rig rates estimated at $1.2m/day, plus $10m mobilisation and demobilisation costs, the bill is expected to be heavy.

Mauritania has agreed to supply electricity to Senegal from the planned Banda gas-to-power plant. A joint statement issued on 11 September at the end of a visit to Dakar by Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz said the two state power companies had reached agreement on a power supply deal. “Mauritania will supply and Senegal will offtake 80MW from March 2015 at cost price in the first phase of the project. This could be increased to 120MW if the technical conditions for transmission of the power permit it. In the second phase of the project, Mauritania will supply up to 250MW to Senegal at cost price.

Tullow Oil has announced plans to farm down its equity in the Tweneboa-Enyenra-Ntomme (Ten) development and production area in return for a carry on development costs. “This will enable Tullow to manage its exposure to development spend over the coming years whilst retaining a material interest and operatorship of the high-value oil production expected to commence in mid-2016,” the company said. The importance of Tullow’s West African oil production portfolio can be seen in the company’s H1 results, in which the region represented 77% of the company’s 88,600 boe/d working interest production. Production from Ghana’s Jubilee field is 110,000 b/d, with a target of 120,000 b/d by year-end, while the company is working to maintain stable production from established fields in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

With some funds coming from oil exports, and supported by Arab/Islamic and European soft finance, Mauritania is gradually building renewables infrastructure. But the demands of mining – and potentially also electricity export sales – mean that development of the estimated 350MW Banda gas-to-power scheme is now feasible, according to the Ministry of Petroleum, Energy and Mines.

Kuwait’s Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development has agreed a KD14m ($49m) loan for a 30MW wind farm in Nouakchott, Mauritania. The deal comes hot on the heels of the country’s first solar power plant, a 15MW facility in Nouakchott built by Abu Dhabi’s Masdar. The loan has an interest rate of 2.5%/yr and will be repaid over 25 years with a seven-year grace period. Société Mauritanienne de l’Electricité will develop the project and is expected to commission the facility in Q2 2015

Abu Dhabi-based renewable energy developer Masdar has inaugurated a 15MW solar photovoltaic power project in Nouakchott. Mauritania’s electricity grid, which is powered mostly by expensive diesel generators, has an installed capacity of only 144MW, resulting in severe energy shortages. The Sheikh Zayed solar power plant accounts for 10% of Mauritania’s energy capacity, and with energy demand increasing by 12%/yr, it will help meet future electricity shortfalls and supply the energy demand of some 10,000 homes.