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Is Africa’s upstream cementing its credentials as an exploration hotspot? The continent’s upstream has distinct advantages over other global basins, and has a window of opportunity in which to attract investment from companies that face tax burdens in other jurisdictions, writes James Gavin.

Developers of small hydropower (SHP) projects in East Africa are facing greater challenges in raising finance for their schemes, as a result of weak national grids and a shift away from take-or-pay arrangements by offtakers, according to one industry figure.

Despite vigorous opposition from a number of quarters, the South African government’s recently appointed electricity minister – who has been given new powers – still wants to procure 2GW of emergency electricity in a revised contract with Turkish-owned Karpowership. Meanwhile, generation is not the only factor causing difficulties, as the grid reaches its limit in some parts of the country.

Malawi plans to use its abundant critical minerals to reduce poverty and cut its long-standing dependence on agriculture. Following a mining development deal signed with Australia’s Globe Metals and Mining in March, several more agreements are in the pipeline, writes Tonderayi Mukeredzi.

The German government-supported Clean Energy and Energy Inclusion for Africa (CEI Africa) fund said on 2 June it had awarded $7.3m in grants to three solar PV mini-grid developers for projects in Kenya.

President Ismail Omar Guelleh commissioned the 20MW wind plant that supplies the Doraleh Desalination facility, 5km west of Djibouti City, on 14 March. Energy generated by the plant is used to power the 22,500m3 capacity reverse osmosis facility. The government plans a further upgrade to 45,000m3.

New York-listed energy services provider Expro Group Holdings has won a $30m, five-year well intervention and integrity contract from France’s TotalEnergies for the Tilenga project in Uganda.

Egypt’s Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly and Central Bank of Egypt governor Hassan Abdalla face an imminent decision on whether to allow the operators of solar power projects at the Benban Solar Farm to convert Egyptian pound profits into dollars so they can meet a mid-July debt repayment deadline. At stake are both short-term financial stability and long-term credibility.

Nigeria’s recently launched Energy Transition Plan aims to make Abuja’s target of net zero emissions by 2060 a reality, but the debt-for-climate deal proposed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo could be even more important in relieving more immediate economic pressures – if creditors agree to provide the funds requested for a new deal that promotes gas as the key ‘transition fuel’.

Growing alarm over the scale of the climate emergency and the impossibility of limiting the global temperature increase to just 1.5ºC by 2100 has put Africa’s climate finance conundrum into the spotlight during COP27 in Egypt.  Divisions over the future role of gas in energy transition have split the continent – which will not get all the new money it wants to help it adapt to the consequences of climate change, writes John Hamilton in Sharm El Sheikh.

United States climate envoy John Kerry has held out the prospect of additional help being offered at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) to counties in Africa and elsewhere that are being badly affected by climate change issues.

Amid rising concerns about mining governance across sub-Saharan Africa – underlined by a new US advisory warning of ‘unique business risk’ – a contract awarding well-connected UAE company Primera Group the right to export and process much of Democratic Republic of Congo’s artisanal gold has attracted scrutiny and criticism within and well beyond DRC, writes Eleanor Gillespie.

Considerable attention has focused on critical or transition minerals, along with rare earths, as the world moves to decarbonise. Although frequently conflated, these minerals have distinctive – and contingent – definitions. African Energy provides a primer.

Questions remain about the future of Gaz du Cameroun (GDC), after its parent company, Victoria Oil and Gas (Vog) was placed in administration on 20 February. GDC  – one of Africa’s few onshore gas producers that sells to a local clientele – is involved in a dispute with the government having announced a 20% tariff increase from 1 June,  its first price hike for gas in a decade.

Speeches made by African leaders at the 1-2 November opening of COP26 provided some insights into how they plan to move ahead with decarbonisation, while ensuring they don’t lose out on development opportunities for their economies. African Energy examines an A-to-Z of the leaders’ preoccupations