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Engineering services company Penspen has won a contract from Petrozim Line to provide engineering, procurement services, construction and commissioning supervision for the latest phase of capacity expansion of the Feruka-Harare multiproduct pipeline. Penspen, which installed the original pipeline and has carried out a study for the expansion project over the last six years, will provide its services at three separate sites, Feruka, Wilton and Harare.

Ophir Energy plans to drill a deep-water well in the shared zone between Senegal and Guinea Bissau and has secured a rig from AP Moller-Maersk.

Oil minister Foumakoye Gado has defended the cost of fuel as one of the lowest in the region, following renewed pressure from transport unions and civil society groups for a price cut.Campaigners argue that fuel should be cheaper as Niger produces its own oil. However, in a series of mid-February interviews on local radio and television, Gado said refining costs also had to be taken into account.

Morocco’s state power company is increasingly active in Africa and plans to open an international arm in London, to be closer to international financial markets and the developer community, and to create much-needed new revenue flows, its chief executive told Jon Marks in Casablanca

Rwanda, hopeful of discovering hydrocarbons reserves to underpin its rapid economic growth, is gearing up to persuade international companies that it can be a serious exploration opportunity by offering a more robust legislative framework and other incentives. An Upstream Petroleum Bill has been tabled in parliament and will be debated soon, based on the Upstream Policy approved by cabinet in July 2013. “As soon as the law is passed we will divide the country into blocks and look for prospective areas to present to companies,” minister of state for mining Evode Imena told the East African Petroleum Conference in Kigali on 4 March.

Uncertainty over the regulatory framework has slowed oil and gas exploration for several years, but with new legislation in place the pace is finally picking up, writes Thalia Griffiths, recently in Johannesburg

The World Bank announced on 17 January that the International Development Association would provide a $20m grant to help improve the performance of Central African Republic’s power and water suppliers, Energie Centrafricaine (Enerca) and Société des Eaux de Centrafrique (Sodeca), and increase access to water and electricity in the capital Bangui and the towns of Bambari and Berberati.

Ophir Energy on 10 November announced a binding shareholders’ agreement to form a joint operating company with OneLNG to develop the Fortuna floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) project. OneLNG is a joint venture between Golar LNG, which is supplying the Gandria FLNG vessel for Fortuna, and Schlumberger, which had been talking to Ophir earlier this year about developing the project before it established the joint venture with Golar.

AIM-listed Chariot Oil & Gas has been awarded a 75% interest and operatorship of the new Kenitra Offshore exploration permit and has launched a seismic survey in pursuit of a Lower Cretaceous play which spreads from the adjacent Mohammedia permit into the Kenitra acreage. Kenitra, which covers 1,400km2 in water depths ranging from 200 metres to 1,500 metres, was formerly part of the Eni-operated Rabat Deep Offshore exploration permits I-VI (AE 338/13).

There has been a fresh wave of violent protests in the volatile capital of Conakry in recent days, with crowds attacking offices of state utility Electricité de Guinée (EDG) and blocking roads with burning tyres to protest at continued power cuts.

With no deal yet in place on oil revenue-sharing between north and south Sudan, Khartoum has imposed a pipeline usage fee of $22.80/bbl on South Sudan’s exports

Berkeley Energy, as manager of the Africa Renewable Energy Fund (AREF), is seeking expressions of interest from consultants to carry out a wind resource assessment for the Konikablo wind project. AREF, a $200m fund backed by the African Development Bank to invest in development-stage renewable energy projects, is considering investing in the potential 50MW wind scheme.

On 16 January, the African Development Bank (AfDB) priced a $1bn fixed-rate US dollar global benchmark bond due 15 March 2018. The transaction pays a coupon of 0.875% and a spread of five basis points over mid-swaps, equivalent to 20.45 basis points over the UST 0.75% due 31 December 2017.

Tullow Oil and Africa Oil Corporation are in the enviable position of having no other partners in the 12,638km2 Block 10BB, where oil was found in March

Midvaal Local Municipality in Gauteng has issued a request for qualification for a public-private partnership concession to finance, design, manage, operate, maintain and expand electricity services. The small municipality, which in 2016 had a population of 111,612 people, is blazing a trail as one of the first to seek a private concessionaire to run its electricity distribution responsibilities. The concession could run for 15-20 years.