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Electricity trading platform Etana Energy will supply 195GWh of renewable energy to real estate investor Growthpoint’s retail, office and industrial sites around South Africa.

The Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) raised $145m in an investment round led by private equity investor Affirma Capital in early January, quickly followed by the listing of a debut $54m ‘green bond’ on the Lusaka Securities Exchange. The bond is the first part of a planned $200m issuance programme, which was launched in December to fund an expansion of the company’s solar PV generation capacity. Managing director Owen Silavwe, gave African Energy an update on the progress of the 60MW solar PV project at Itimpi, which will take CEC’s solar capacity to 96MW.

Financing from Saudi-based International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation is part of a $600m three-year deal signed in May 2023 and will pay for imports of petroleum products needed for electricity generation.

Trafigura subsidiary Puma Energy said it had snapped up a minority stake in South African renewable energy company MBHE Group.

Ore feed has resumed at the Langer Heinrich uranium plant, with commercial production expected in near term after operator ASX-listed Paladin Energy raised $150m of new debt.

South African state electricity utility Eskom has said a 10% curtailment exercise will unlock almost 3.5GW of transmission capacity for wind power generation in Eastern Cape and Western Cape provinces.

Independents Afentra and Serinus emerged as the main overseas winners from Angola’s latest 12-block licensing round, after being named as preferred bidders for onshore blocks in the Lower Congo and Kwanza basins.

Construction is expected to start at the planned Sherbro Island power plant this year, with the involvement of Hollywood actor Idris Elba adding a sprinkling of stardust to Sierra Leone’s first wind development.

Food and animal feed producer Unga Group is close to finishing the installation of 3MW solar PV capacity at five manufacturing across the country.

South Africa-headquartered Sustainable Power Solutions, Namibian property developer Fortitude and the Oelofse family are collaborating to develop a solar PV plant at Maxwell farm to supply electricity to B2Gold’s Otjikoto mine via a wheeling deal with NamPower.

Toronto Stock Exchange-listed Africa Oil Corporation has received official approval to acquire a 6.25% interest in offshore Block 3B/4B from Eco, taking its total holding in the Orange Basin acreage to 26.25%. A drilling campaign is being planned for the area, where Africa Oil is looking to farm-out a share.

Despite a 14GW announced pipeline of new power generation projects, 2023 was marked by the lowest amount of new-build capacity being added to the continent’s grid since 2018, according to new analysis from African Energy Live Data. Hydroelectric and solar additions came out on top, while gas-to-power schemes continued to disappoint as delays and unrealised projects clog up the project pipeline.

Shell is selling Nigerian subsidiary SPDC, with the onshore and shallow-water operator going to a consortium of local companies allied to industry veteran Samuel Dossou-Aworet for a sum of up to $2.4bn the supermajor is helping to fund. While Shell is retaining some other valuable Nigerian assets, it adds to a trend of international majors exiting all but their big deep-water oil and gas plays, following recent deals by ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies and Eni. African Energy analyses several aspects of a complex deal.

Shell’s creation in 1907, as a rival to American behemoth Standard Oil, produced an Anglo-Dutch company looking for global reach. Its presence in Nigeria dates back to 1936, when Shell D’Arcy was established, which was followed by a joint venture with another major, BP’s precursor company.

While TotalEnergies and partner QatarEnergy have deepened their exposure to the highly prospective Venus play, Galp Energia has announced a light oil discovery its nearby Mopane-1X offshore exploration well – adding to the industry excitement around Namibia’s offshore prospects.