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An early September judgement confirming the Eastern Cape High Court’s rejection of Shell’s attempt to conduct seismic surveys along South Africa’s eastern coast will leave the government – and oil companies – with plenty of food for thought, as South Africa and many other countries look to produce more hydrocarbons in sensitive environments, James Gavin writes.

The construction phase of a 200MW solar photovoltaic (PV) project for mining and chemicals firm Tronox Holdings is set to begin after local independent power producer (IPP) Sola Group and African Rainbow Energy (Are) reached financial close on 9 September.  The facility has been described as the first utility-scale renewable energy (RE) captive power project in South Africa.

Fresh criticism from the European Parliament of the controversial scheme to drill for oil in Lake Albert and export the crude to Tanzania via a 1,400km pipeline adds to pressures on the project’s shareholders. The reputational risk has made dozens of major banks and insurers distance themselves from the project, but Uganda and Tanzania remain adamant Eacop should go ahead, writes James Gavin.

Uganda is planning an oil licensing round in 2023, as it seeks to develop its petroleum sector, mineral development and energy minister Ruth Nankabirwa Ssentamu told an oil and gas conference in Kampala on 27 September. African Energy examines this news and provides a roundup of other bid rounds across Africa.

Energy and power development minister Zhemu Soda has removed the board of directors of state petroleum company PetroTrade for alleged malpractice, including recruiting senior staff without following company procedures.

London AIM-listed Savannah Energy has said its acquisition of ExxonMobil and Petronas’ upstream and midstream assets in Chad and Cameroon is on track to be completed by year-end.

A consortium of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s ONGC Videsh subsidiary have held talks discussions with Tullow Oil to acquire a 50% stake in the London Stock Exchange-listed independent’s Project Oil Kenya development.

London AIM and Australian Stock Exchange-listed explorer Atlantic Lithium said on 13 October that it had submitted its licence application for the Ewoyaa project on the Cape Coast, which is expected to be Ghana’s first lithium mine.

State-owned China Baowu Steel Group has signed an agreement with Winning Consortium Simandou (WCS) to help develop blocks 1 and 2 of the giant iron ore project. WCS said Baowu would work “as a potential investor in close collaboration with its partners”.

Just over a year after Eni announced the major Baleine offshore oil discovery momentum still appears to be strong in Côte d’Ivoire's upstream sector.

Moves by the South African and Mozambican governments to take control of the Rompco pipeline showed the fundamental shift in Pretoria’s strategic view, as big beasts Eskom and Sasol look to decarbonise. There is significant potential for a regional gas economy – underlined by urgent action to end the jihadist insurgency in Cabo Delgado – but past politics and indecision is tempering optimism, writes Dan Marks

A 6 February cabinet meeting approved the development plan for Anadarko’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Area 1 of the Rovuma Basin. The consortium partners plan to develop an LNG facility initially with two 6m t/yr trains to process gas from the Golfinho/Atum field in Area 1. Capacity will be expandable to 50m t/yr. The facility will be built on the Afungi peninsula in Palma district, at the northern end of Cabo Delgado province.

The Eni and ExxonMobil-led Mozambique Rovuma Venture has submitted a development plan to the government for the first phase of the Rovuma liquefied natural gas (LNG) project at Afungi, which will produce, liquefy and market natural gas from the Mamba fields in Area 4.The plan details the proposed design and construction of two LNG trains which will each produce 7.6m t/yr of LNG.

Global Alliance for People and Planet and the Norwegian government have pledged more funding to support the development of solar power in Sahel countries.

Final government approval for the Mozambique Rovuma Offshore Area 1 Project development plan is expected shortly, according to partner PTTEP. Announcing its 2017 annual results on 26 January, the Thai company said the development plan was in the process of final approval from the government, which was expected in early 2018.PTTEP said the project had already achieved several key milestones, including government approval for the legal and contractual framework, as well as official approval for the marine concessions.