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What will be Africa’s longest oil pipeline is now 30% complete and forecast to increase landlocked Niger’s oil exports tenfold in a ‘transformative’ Chinese-owned project that forms part of Beijing’s long-term play in the region. Other actors are looking to ramp up production using the infrastructure, with Niger – on the frontline of battle against jihadism in the Sahel – also being courted by the West.

The reshuffle and apparent downgrade of oil minister Gabriel Obiang Lima has brought a close aide of President Teodoro Obiang, former national company GEPetrol head Antonio Oburu Ondo, into the Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons. The controversial new minister is also close to Obiang’s favoured son Teodorin, who is ever more strongly placed to eventually replace the octogenarian president in Equatorial Guinea’s most critical succession battle.

The Greater Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) LNG project’s phase one remains on track for first exports by end-2023, with a Phase II development decision expected in Q3 22 for first gas from end-2026. Kosmos Energy says that in a booming global market, it is looking to sell its share of gas into spot markets, even if that means paying penalties to partner BP, writes Marc Howard.

Tel Aviv Stock Exchange-listed NewMed Energy’s proposed acquisition of London-listed Capricorn Energy has pushed aside a planned deal with Tullow Oil in favour of a merger that intensifies Israel’s involvement in the Egyptian upstream sector and could represent another important eastern Mediterranean gas play.

Seplat Energy’s $1.6bn acquisition of ExxonMobil’s Nigerian shallow-water assets faces the very real prospect of being blocked after Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) won a court decision temporarily blocking the US major from selling its Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited assets to the ambitious London- and NGX-listed independent

The four-nation Organisation for the Development of the Senegal River (OMVS) has issued a tender seeking an operator to raise financing, conduct studies and build a 225kV transmission line, as part of the Manantali II project to supply Mauritania with electricity from hydroelectric power (HEP) plants in Mali.

After Covid damaged the industry – the 5.7GW added to the continent’s grid in 2021 was the lowest since 2012 – a substantial increase in the rate of power generation plant commissioning is inevitable and will be weighted in favour of new technologies, according to African Energy Live Data’s latest analysis of projects delivered and in the pipeline. Many countries are struggling to meet their ambitions to build new capacity, but Live Data also indicates that the average rate of commissioning is very likely to increase towards the 8GW/yr needed to deliver those projects now being built. Also apparent is the renewable energy revolution that has already taken place in the minds and business plans of project developers, sponsors and officials – even if this has yet to be seen in gigawatts on the ground.

Japan’s pledge to invest some $30bn in Africa over the next three years has underlined the Asian economic giant’s commitment to rapidly advance its relations, as well as to expand its presence, on a continent where Tokyo’s involvement has too often lagged behind other big nations.

With blackouts raging, South African efforts to bring new capacity online face global headwinds. Both the latest Renewable Energy IPP Procurement Programme (REIPPP5) and the Risk Mitigation IPP Procurement Programme (RMIPPP) are being hampered by rising component and engineering costs.

Tullow Oil is continuing with talks to bring in a strategic partner for its South Lokichar oil development in Kenya, as the authorities in Nairobi move closer to approving a revised field development plan (FDP) submitted in late 2021.

Germany and US-based experimental energy storage and trading company H2-Industries has obtained preliminary approval from Egypt’s General Authority for the Suez Canal Economic Zone to develop an unprecedentedly large $3bn waste-to-hydrogen plant in East Port Said using thermolyzing technology. The project also includes a substantial power generation component. African Energy’s John Hamilton spoke to H2-I executive chairman Michael Stusch to obtain details of capacities, financing, expected pricing, and the next steps.

Frequently treated as an afterthought to electrification, clean cooking equipment suppliers have quietly been making inroads on the back of deepening supply chains, technological innovation and maturing business models, writes Dan Marks.

South African Breweries (SAB) has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with local waste-to-energy developer Bio2Watt for its 4.8MW Cape Dairy biogas plant.

With oil prices rising above $100/bbl as geopolitical tensions in Ukraine ratchet ever upwards, exploration and production companies in Africa are enjoying a boom, but the prospects for merger and acquisition deals are mixed. Companies that had been planning to offload assets can be reluctant to let go of a lucrative earner, while buyers have an incentive to wait for prices to fall before agreeing a deal.

A tender issued by national ports agency ANP to update its Mohammedia facility to accommodate Morocco’s first liquified natural gas terminal and FSRU generated considerable excitement in an industry expecting the kingdom to import LNG to help cover its power industry needs after Algeria stopped sending gas through the Maghreb-Europe Gas pipeline. ANP’s tender may fit into Morocco’s LNG plans, but does not yet mean the energy ministry’s out-to-tender gas import plan is a done deal, with key stakeholders still appraising the direction Morocco will eventually take, write Our Casablanca Correspondent and Jon Marks