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For a candidate who promised to “drain the swamp” and represent communities ground down by the depredations of big business, President-elect Donald Trump has done a good job of placing those he attacked before his election into positions of power. Investment bank Goldman Sachs has three former and current executives in key positions. Big Oil is represented not only by climate change sceptics, but in ExxonMobil chief executive Rex Tillerson it has one of its genuine stars at the helm of US foreign policy.

Mali and Mauritania pioneer Baraka Petroleum said it had appointed administrators to wind up the company after failing to secure funding or find buyers for its Mali and Mauritania assets. “In recent months the company has actively pursued

The southern regional water authority Administração Regional de Águas do Sul (ARA Sul), invites expressions of interest by 22 December from consultants to carry out feasibility studies for the construction of a multi-purpose dam at Mapai in the southern province of Gaza.The proposed dam is one option to be studied as part of a wider flood control programme for the Limpopo Basin. In 2013, severe flooding in the lower stretches of the Limpopo resulted in the deaths of at least 47 people, the evacuation of thousands of inhabitants, the submersion of the city of Chókwè and the destruction of thousands of hectares of crops.

Parliament has approved the award of two blocks to Nigeria’s Camac Energy and Amni International, but the Accra-based Africa Centre for Energy Policy (Acep) has raised the alarm over the speed of the awards. The Expanded Shallow Water Tano Block was awarded to Camac and Ghana’s Base Energy, while the Central Tano Block Offshore was awarded to Amni International Petroleum Development Company (Ghana). The contracts, approved by parliament under a certificate of urgency on 21 March, were presented on 27 February, but Acep said they were approved less than six hours after notice of the motion for approval was given.

Ethiopian Electric Utility (EEU) and Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) have issued a general procurement notice for the Addis Ababa Transmission and Distribution System Rehabilitation and Upgrading Project, which is being funded by a loan from the African Development Fund. EEU and EEP intend to start the tender process for project supervision and management services this month, with tenders for construction of transmission lines and substations in February 2018.

The Ministry of Industry and SMEs has awarded a 100MW solar project in Kairouan to a consortium of TBEA Xinjiang New Energy Company and AMEA Power. The project forms part of an international tender launched by the ministry in 2018, which has seen 500MW of solar projects awarded.

The Egyptian government is considering a number of options for the sale of three gas-fired power plants built by Siemens between 2015 and 2018 which together added 14.4GW to the grid. A sale may be negotiated bilaterally or via a more time-consuming competitive auction; options include the eventual floating of a minority stake on the Egyptian Stock Exchange. The newly formed Tharaa sovereign wealth fund is already playing a decision-making role and is likely to retain the state’s long-term interest in the plants.

UK gas operator Centrica has denied reports from Lagos that it has signed a $12bn deal with Akwa Ibom State to build a new liquefied natural gas plant. Reuters on 27 May quoted state governor Godswill Akpabio as saying that the plant would be built on Tom Island in Mbo district.

Despite the turmoil in global capital markets, Tullow Oil seems to have had no trouble persuading banks to refinance its debt to fund major developments in Ghana and Uganda, writes Kevin Godier.

Dutch development finance institution FMO has arranged a $24m senior loan for the financing of a 14MW run-of-the-river hydropower project at Kilembe Donors fund small hydro

Rating agency Moody’s Investors Service lowered Eni’s long-term corporate credit rating to A3 (outlook negative) from A2 on 16 July. It also lowered the company’s short-term credit rating to P-2 from P-1.

Following its two finds on Block I, Noble Energy has announced an oil discovery at the Carmen prospect, its first well on Block O.

Brazilian independent HRT Participações em Petróleo has announced that its first well offshore Namibia was non- commercial, though samples of light oil were recovered. The announcement came 11 days after the resignation of the company’s founder, Marcio Rocha Mello, and coincided with news of a dry well in HRT’s Solimões Basin acreage in Brazil, sending the company’s shares plummeting, but new chief executive Milton Romeu Franke was bullish in a conference call to discuss the well results. “We have produced light oil, about 40 degrees API. We have identified pay zones. They are not so thick as they could be, but we have pay zones,” he said. “We are very, very pleased with the results we have obtained.”

The Senate on 6 June approved a bill authorising ratification of the Grand Inga Treaty with South Africa. The treaty, signed in Kinshasa on 29 October by presidents Joseph Kabila and Jacob Zuma, confirmed the commitment of both countries to set up the necessary structures for the implementation of the Grand Inga project. While highlighting the regional and integrating nature of the project, its 21 articles recognise DRC’s ownership and sovereignty over the Inga site, as well as the country’s leadership role in the development of Inga through the Agence pour le Développement et la Promotion d’Inga, to be established later this year.

General Electric (GE) announced on 24 February that it has signed a fast-tracked seven-month turnkey agreement to supply equipment and services including two 9E.03 gas turbines and electrical balance of plant for national utility Société Tunisienne de l’Electricité et du Gas’ project to add 250MW to its Bouchemma power plant. The deal includes a two-year contractual services agreement with a possible ten-year extension. A gas power plant using GE turbines has been operating at the coastal site in Bouchemma since the 1990s. It is hoped that the additional capacity will help keep the lights on at tourist resorts during the summer. GE has 15 turbines at seven plants in Tunisia with combined capacity of more than 1.8GW.