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Global Witness has called on Italy’s Eni to explain incoming chief executive Claudio Descalzi’s apparent personal involvement in a corrupt oil deal in Nigeria. Descalzi is credited with heading Eni’s E&P division when it discovered huge gas resources offshore Mozambique, and will replace Paolo Scaroni, who has had three terms as Eni’s head (AE 276/19). According to Global Witness, police investigations in Italy and the UK into how Nigeria’s OPL 245 was awarded to Eni and Shell show that Eni officials led by Descalzi were centrally involved in negotiations with former Nigerian oil minister Chief Dan Etete. Etete is believed to have been one of the deal’s main beneficiaries.

A financing package for Alufer Mining’s Bel Air bauxite project has come as a welcome boost for a sector overshadowed by the Simandou affair and the aftermath of the 2014 Ebola crisis. Alufer has raised $90m of convertible debt and $35m of equity from a consortium of Resource Capital Funds, the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), Orion Mine Finance and existing shareholders, as well as $80m of senior debt from Orion. The funds will be used to develop the Bel Air bauxite mine through to first commercial production.

Energy minister Dikobe Ben Martins and the Department of Energy (DoE) announced earlier this month that the procurement process for 2,500MW of coal-fired independent power producers (IPPs) will begin in May, while an 800MW cogeneration IPP procurement programme will begin this month. Speaking on 14 April, Martins said that an announcement on the nuclear procurement programme would be made within two months and that additional renewable energy projects would be procured under the third round of the renewable energy IPP procurement programme (REIPPP).

The uncertainties of oil exploration in Libya, and the delays that accompany every major deal and decision have been emphasised by the ongoing saga over one of the great success stories of the EPSA-4 process.

Zambia’s new government plans to capitalise on its B+ credit rating by issuing a $500m ten-year sovereign bond next year. Presenting the 2012 budget to parliament, finance minister Alexander Chikwanda said the rating from Standard & Poor’s and Fitch “has opened up the opportunity for Zambia

The US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) has approved a $1m grant to fund feasibility studies for two 17MW solar photovoltaic plants near Pá and Kodéni. The plants are being developed by Denham Capital’s BioTherm Energy and its partner French firm Canopy, via a project company called Société de Production d’Energie Solaire de Kodéni. The studies will be carried out by United States’ Tetra Tech. The projects will sell power to state utility Sonabel under a 25-year power purchase agreement.

The Chinese leadership was shaken when market indices plunged after President Xi Jinping’s team failed to shore up an inexperienced and overheating local equities market. China’s trauma suggests that the last decade’s driver of global prosperity is entering a period of lower, if far from negligible, growth, affecting volumes of trade, and business and political relationships across sub-Saharan Africa. But over-dramatic interpretations of China’s economic outlook are still best avoided.

The Supreme Constitutional Court ruling on 9 June confirming Abdullah Al-Thinni as prime minister and ruling out the claim of his supposed successor Ahmed Maetig has been accepted by all sides and restored a degree of authority and unity to a country which has seemed on the verge of splitting in two over the past month. Thinni effectively returns to the role as caretaker in advance of elections to a new interim parliament – to be called the House of Representatives – scheduled for 25 June. It is not clear whether he will be able to revive the partial deal that he struck with the federalist groups blockading ports in eastern Libya in early April, nor whether he can impose central government control on retired General Khalifa Haftar, who has been conducting an unauthorised counterterrorism offensive against Islamist groups in Cyrenaica.

The unions don’t like it and neither do many northern politicians. But publicly, at least, a majority in government and business are behind the president’s efforts to remove subsidies on petrol, writes Leonard Lawal in Lagos

A big new loan for a Nigerian gas project underlines growing interest from private investors in the country’s potential, writes Kevin Godier. Two Nigerian banks have extended a landmark $60m project finance facility to part- finance the construction of a gas pipeline, central processing facility and associated infrastructure in Akwa Ibom state.

Electricity Development Corporation (EDC) invites expressions of interest from consultants by 7 June to carry out a study for the development of the hydropower potential of the Sanaga River Basin.

Eni has signed a sale and purchase agreement with Chevron for a 25% interest in blocks LB-11, LB-12 and LB-14. Chevron plans a deep-water well on the acreage in Q4 this year. The joint venture is now composed of Chevron (45%), Eni (25%) and Nigeria’s Oranto Petroleum (30%).

UK oil and gas services company ASCO Group has won a $100m contract to provide supply base services to BG in Tanzania. The three-year contract will be operated out of Mtwara port and will employ over 100 local people. ASCO will provide shore base services to BG, Statoil, Petrobras and Ophir Energy, including warehousing, vessel loading and unloading, pipeyard storage, the provision of bulk chemicals and facilities management services.

The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law Tribunal has ruled in Uganda’s favour in its dispute with Heritage Oil over a capital gains tax (CGT) bill. Heritage must also pay $4m in legal fees. The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) issued Heritage with a $404m tax bill for the sale of its Lake Albert assets to Tullow Oil in January 2010. The company contested its liability for the payment, but lost its challenge at the Tax Appeals Tribunal in November 2011, then decided to appeal at the tribunal.

The Ministry of Mines, Industry and Energy has signed six memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with Chinese companies on industrial and energy projects as part of government plans to diversify the economy and reduce dependence on oil. The agreements were signed on April 30 at an economic forum in Dalian, following a state visit to Beijing by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. China Dalian International Co-operation Group (CDIG) signed an agreement to carry out studies for the development of the Industrial City of Mbini. CDIG will undertake preliminary technical studies and will promote the Industrial City of Mbini to international investors.