Search results

The CNSP regime has triumphantly commemorated the anniversary of its ousting of President Bazoum. But the festivities merely distract from a worsening security situation that has seen major oil investor CNPC suspend work in the Agadem Rift Basin, part of a $7bn investment including a pipeline which remains idle over a dispute with Benin. Niger’s woes lay bare the folly of the chauvinistic politics advanced by the Sahel’s juntas, writes Marc Howard.

Italian major Eni has cleared the last regulatory hurdle for its deal to offload a series of onshore exploration and production licences to Nigerian local player Oando, in a transaction estimated to be worth some $500m. Eni chief executive Claudio Descalzi met with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Abuja on 19 July – part of a regional tour that also took in talks with the presidents of Republic of Congo and Angola. Descalzi has insisted that Eni remains committed to Nigeria.

After a period of economic and political turmoil, embattled Kenyan President William Ruto has been forced into a major government restructuring. The shape of a new coalition with the main opposition party the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) is still being finalised, but it will likely have a difficult time trying to steer the economy and government finances to a position of greater stability.

The leaders of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger are taking steps to create a new regional body to replace their former membership of Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) but it remains unclear how the plan will be organised and financed.

A 600,000 t/yr iron and carbon steel plant built by Chinese steel giant Tsingshan Holdings has started production at Manhize near Mvuma, breathing life into Zimbabwe’s moribund steel industry and positioning the country as a major iron and steel exporter.

Another round of energy sector appointments has been made by President Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s administration, part of what some Senegalese observers have called the ‘de-Mackyisation’ of the energy sector. The new recruits largely comprise technocrats, external experts, and academics.

The award of the Angola’s Block KON 19 to local operator Acrep and partners London AIM-listed Afentra and the local Enagol has been signed off by industry regulator the Agência Nacional de Petróleo, Gás e Biocombustíveis (ANPG).

Australia-listed Invictus Energy has announced a two-stage share placement with local institutional investors, underwritten in part by Zimbabwe’s sovereign wealth fund the Mutapa Investment Fund, to support its Cabora Bassa oil and gas project in Muzarabani, northern Zimbabwe.

Norway’s Scatec is selling a majority stake of its hydroelectric power joint venture with Norfund and British International Investment, which is involved in projects in Uganda, Malawi, and a trilateral Great Lakes development.

The imminent return of Casablanca-based power and water utility Lydec to public ownership marks an important step in what has been a drawn-out process, but major hurdles remain before the government’s new electricity distribution structure is firmly in place, write John Hamilton and our Casablanca correspondent.

 Zambia’s National Pension Scheme Authority is to provide half of the $400m cost of adding 300MW of generating capacity to the MCL coal-fired plant in Sinazongwe, after international investors steered clear of the project, writes Chiwoyu Sinyangwe in Lusaka.

Despite the enormous need for investment in new transmission and distribution capacity and rehabilitating existing infrastructure, there is precious little private sector involvement in African utilities. The old model of state-dominated, vertically-integrated utilities has conspicuously failed to expand access or lower costs, yet it continues to exercise a hold over governments, writes Marc Howard.

A mini-boom in uranium mining is underway in Africa, with investors raising debt and equity finance to advance greenfield projects and mothballed mines being brought back online. The energy transition and geopolitical imperatives have created a more favourable environment for the nuclear power sector, but political risks are especially acute when it comes to uranium, as demonstrated by recent licence withdrawals in Niger, writes Marc Howard.

French major TotalEnergies said in late July that it was withdrawing from South Africa’s offshore Block 11B/12B block, after deciding that the two gas discoveries made there were not economically viable. PetroSA had been hoping the gas could be used to supply its shuttered 45,000 b/d Mossel Bay refinery, which it wants to bring back online.

Johannesburg-based real estate investor Vukile Property Fund plans to increase its power generating capacity from rooftop solar PV to 41MWp by 2026, as part of a strategy to invest in alternative and cheaper electricity to supplement unreliable grid supplies to its shopping malls.