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Egypt Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly secured a $5bn pledge from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) in mid-September, in what Egyptian authorities described as a “first phase” of investment. The plunging value of the Egyptian pound over the past few years has made deals significantly more attractive to Gulf investors and President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s regime needs the financial support as much as ever.

Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power has commissioned the 100MW Redstone concentrated solar power plant in South Africa’s Northern Cape. It marks further progress for the technology, which offers both intermittent and dispatchable solar generation but is often seen as too costly to develop. The plant brings total African operational capacity to 1.7GW according to African Energy Live Data.

Crude oil cargoes worth some $400m have been exported from Libya by an obscure private company, in the latest sign of a breakdown of authority in the country. Blockades and force majeure stoppages at other oil facilities, along with the exile of a controversial central bank governor, threaten to plunge the country into an existential crisis. It comes as the compromises which have helped to contain civil conflicts since the fall of the Qadhafi regime look ever harder to sustain, writes John Hamilton

A new African uranium frontier is set to open soon, with Mauritania’s first yellowcake mine on the cusp of a major milestone. ASX- and London AIM-listed Aura Energy's chief executive Andrew Grove told African Energy that discussions were taking place to finalise $250m of debt and equity funding for its 2m lb/yr Tiris mine.  

A final investment decision for Australian Securities Exchange (ASX)-listed Bannerman Energy’s Etango uranium mine in Namibia is expected by end-2024. The junior’s chief executive Gavin Chamberlain told African Energy that good progress had been made on the project.

Progress at all five of the large solar photovoltaic concessions first launched in 2019 is an indication that Tunisia’s renewable power sector may be moving forward despite extremely difficult political conditions. Scatec’s farm-out of a stake in its two projects to Japan’s Aeolus represents a major new commitment, backed by carbon credits along with debt financing.

Reforms to the way multilateral financial institutions approach project finance could help overcome some of the most intractable barriers to the electrification of Africa, including fears of default and high project financing costs which drive away many potential investors. To be meaningful, changes need to be principled and generally applicable, while also anchored in the often-messy reality of doing business across the continent. African Energy is publishing the first in a series of white papers on how this problem might be solved in a way which recognises Africa’s needs and the capabilities of institutions, without introducing moral hazard.

In the final month of the presidential election campaign, Tunisians face a scenario increasingly common across the developing world. With the right approach to decision-making progress in the electricity generating sector is possible, but presidential meddling and growing competition between deep-state interests makes life difficult for technocratic officials, foreign investors and local partners. The quandary is particularly acute in the emerging renewable energy space, writes John Hamilton.

Uranium industry figures say African producers should benefit from the growing interest around the world in developing more nuclear power, after a long slump following the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan. Established producers such as Namibia – which could become the world’s second-largest producer in the next decade – Niger and Malawi are eyeing greater output, while others such as Mauritania are preparing to enter the market, writes Marc Howard.

GoviEx is expanding its presence in Zambia with an option for a uranium exploration licence in Eastern Province. The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) Venture-listed miner told African Energy at the World Nuclear Association (WNA)’s symposium in London in early September that it expected the feasibility study for its Muntanga project in Zambia’s Southern Province to be completed this year.

After a lost decade of failure, Tunisia’s energy sector authorities are attempting to implement a new and ambitious renewable energy procurement process which, once in place, could underpin long-term sustainable growth and cement the country as a vital commercial partner to developed economies in Europe. With the award of the first in a set of new tenders just emerging, African Energy has analysed the trends and the projects whose success or failure will help define the outcome of what looks certain to be a second term for the autocratic incumbent President Kaïs Saïed, writes John Hamilton.

Over the last two months South Africa and Zambia have enacted new liberalising laws and market regulations in an attempt to attract investment to their power generation, transmission, and distribution sectors.

It may not be lending as much as in recent decades, but China retains a dominant position as an economic partner and political ally in Africa. President Xi Jinping is now trying to reposition his country as a source of ‘small but beautiful’ projects, but Beijing will fight to maintain its hold over resource flows, having built up a strong position in many markets that western rivals will find hard to shift, writes Jon Marks.

Nasdaq Stockholm-listed Tethys Oil has recommended its shareholders accept a takeover offer from Australia’s Roc Oil Company, which values the company at $186m. Tethys’s main area of operations is Oman, but it also recently signed a deal with Algerian national oil company Sonatrach covering oil and gas exploration in two areas.

Siemens Energy has won a contract to provide a power generation plant for the floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel at the 70,000 b/d Kaminho upstream project, 100km off the coast of Angola.