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Australian companies Pancontinental Oil & Gas and FAR Limited have agreed to settle their long-running dispute over Kenya Block L6 and relinquish the licence. Pancontinental said it would make a payment of $150,000 in settlement of outstanding cash calls. The partners will then start the process of withdrawing from the block. Pancontinental said it had received default notices totalling $567,145.80 this year. The company has disputed the amounts since 2015, arguing that no exploration was taking place on the block.

It may be symbolic that, beyond the state-run grid, Tanzania provides an enticing opportunity for innovative investors to build businesses in marginalised communities with aspirations to move beyond energy poverty. Tanzania has been a pioneer in the sub-Saharan off-grid revolution, where mini-grid operator Jumeme and other innovators have been able to build their businesses. Germany’s Redavia last year began operating its first two mini-grids, supported by InfraCo Africa.

The 19.5MW Liouesso dam in the Sangha province of northern Congo was formally inaugurated on 29 May by President Denis Sassou-Nguesso. The Chinese-financed dam was built by China Gezhouba Group, which started work in 2012, while the transmission infrastructure has been built by China Machinery Engineering Corporation. It will supply power to the towns of Ouesso, Pokola and Mokéko, significantly improving supply in the province, where Société Nationale d’Electricité’s supply was previously limited to a 3MW diesel plant in the regional capital, Ouesso.

Work at the $150m 60MW Kinangop wind farm remains on hold amid continuing tensions with the local community, with project sponsors accusing local political leaders of reneging on agreements. Despite the lifting of a court injunction halting the project, the project owners – Norway’s Norfund and South Africa’s African Infrastructure Investment Fund II, part of Old Mutual – say work will not resume until the issues have been resolved. The situation is perhaps the most serious facing a private power project in Kenya, but land and compensation issues have also touched the 982MW Lamu coal power project and the 310MW Lake Turkana wind scheme, where an injunction was rejected but court proceedings are ongoing.

GE’s power services business announced on 15 November that it had signed an agreement with Azito Energie to upgrade two gas turbines at the company’s combined-cycle power plant, adding up to 30MW of generation capacity. The project marks GE’s first GT13E2 MXL2 gas turbine upgrade order in sub-Saharan Africa.

Following the announcement that Heirs Holding is to invest $2.5bn in the African power sector as a part of US President Barack Obama’s Power Africa initiative, Heirs Holding chairman Tony Elumelu has announced his company is looking to purchase two oil-producing blocks to supply gas to the Ughelli power plant and other power projects. Ughelli was recently purchased by Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp), which is also controlled by Elumelu, a former chief executive of United Bank for Africa.

Lagos-based Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) has completed a $50m bilateral loan facility with Rand Merchant Bank. AFC aims to use the proceeds with its other financings to fund further investments in the development of critical infrastructure.

OLC Arandis Solar Energy signed a 25-year power purchase agreement on 19 September with the Erongo Regional Electricity Distributor. A tender for a 3MW solar photovoltaic plant at Arandis was awarded in February to Germany’s Cronimet Mining Power Solutions and its Namibian partner O&L Energy. Ground-breaking for the N$80m ($6m) solar plant will take place in November, with operations expected to start by April 2017. Cronimet was engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the 4.5MW Omburu solar plant, which started operation in 2015.

South Sudan’s oil production has fallen by about 25,000 b/d, or 15%, due to problems with well maintenance in the key producing state of Upper Nile, according to the latest sales and marketing data from the Ministry of Petroleum and Mines. The ministry has outlined a lifting programme for 4.2m barrels of crude for November, equivalent to 140,000 b/d. Production in H1 2014 averaged 165,000 b/d. The drop is significant, and will be costly for the government. The outbreak of hostilities in mid-December had already resulted in a sharp drop in output from 220,000 b/d in November 2013.

The situation at the 1,424MW capacity Inga II plant has become extremely problematic, with state utility Société Nationale d’Électricité (Snel) warning the public in mid-October that Kinshasa and Bas-Congo Province would suffer serious power cuts until December, owing to maintenance problems. Two of Inga II’s five operational 178MW turbines will have to be repaired before end-November. Snel has also announced that Indian engineers and workers from Kalpataru Power Transmission Ltd (KPTL), which is building the second high-voltage power line between Inga and Kinshasa, have stopped working for several weeks due to fears over Ebola.

Business leaders, the liberal policy establishment and conservative states anxious to see stability restored to a region wracked by turmoil since the 2011 Arab Spring will warm to the policy mix likely to be introduced by Egypt’s new interim government, led by a little-known lawyer and an economist of the Washington school. Interim prime minister Hazem El-Beblawi is likely to seek an early deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the full disbursement of some $8bn committed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Meanwhile, his government will scramble to secure energy imports – when ministers and new parastatal heads are finally appointed – as the threat of blackouts looms over the holy month of Ramadan

Total has given Technip an engineering, procurement and supply contract for the offshore Moho Nord project. Moho Nord consists of two developments: Moho Phase 1bis and Moho Nord, and this contract is part of the Moho Phase 1bis development, which consists of tiebacks to the existing deep-water Alima floating production unit and the shallow-water N’Kossa platform.

Following the announcement earlier this year that around $1.6bn of the proceeds from the sale of the National Integrated Power Projects will be reinvested in the transmission network, minister of state for power Mohammed Wakil has urged investment in transmission assets on a public-private partnership (PPP) model. The statement, which was also published on the Ministry of Power website, came as a surprise to many within the industry, which had understood that the transmission network would remain firmly in public hands, and officials have been reluctant to confirm the minister’s comments.

Following its recent farm-out in Morocco, Pura Vida Energy is seeking a partner for the offshore Nkembe Block. The Australian company, which acquired 80% in the block in January, said it was interpreting existing 3D seismic data and expected to release resource estimates in July. In August, it will open a data room with the aim of finding a partner to fund new 3D seismic acquisition and drilling.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Russia are co-funding a $4m programme to improve access to water and power in southern Madagascar. Projects will include four solar power plants of up to 100kWp each, 2,000 solar PV kits for the most remote locations, plus drinking water and agricultural infrastructure.