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There were mixed signals from Accra as Nigerian-owned Sahara Group was reported to have opened talks about once more lifting oil under a long-term contract to supply Ghanaian power plants.

Announcing job losses and investment cutbacks, Big Oil’s flagship companies are emitting signals that should be heeded by those African oil-producing governments that are less inclined to believe the world is changing to their disadvantage. Dramatic announcements of changes of strategic direction by BP, Eni, Royal Dutch Shell and Total suggest most majors see their futures as diversified energy companies, rather than old-style IOCs.

Saipem’s Castorone pipe-laying vessel has arrived offshore Equatorial Guinea to carry out installation work for a 70km gas pipeline to connect Noble Energy’s Alen field with gas processing facilities at Punta Europa. The Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons said on 8 November the vessel’s arrival from the Spanish port of Escombreras marked the start of the backfilling project to replace declining production from the Alba field.

While Tullow Oil has completed the $575m sale of its Uganda assets to operator Total, removing one barrier to a final investment decision (FID), development of the Lake Albert oil project is likely to take some time. With the year-end fast approaching, Ugandan energy minister Mary Goretti now says she expects FID in H1 2021, though Total had previously talked of a target of end-2020.

Total has defended itself against criticism of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project, publishing its social and environmental studies and action plans and pledging transparency. In the latest attack on the project, 263 organisations from 49 countries have banded together to campaign against the planned export pipeline to carry Uganda’s crude oil to the Tanzanian coast.

Karpowership’s 235MW Aysegül Sultan powership will start its switch to LNG in May or June, Asli Sürek of Karpowership told African Energy on 8 April. The ship has produced some 15% of Senegal’s electricity using heavy fuel oil (HFO) since it began operations in October 2019. The Aysegül Sultan will be sub-Saharan Africa’s first LNG-fuelled power plant. Sürek said Karpowership intends eventually to switch its entire fleet to LNG.

Finance minister and economic planning minister Jibril Ibrahim Mohammed on 8 June announced the removal of subsidies on petrol and diesel, telling retailers to raise the price of petrol by 93%, to S$290 ($0.67)/ltr, and diesel by 128%, to SP285/ltr – another big hike, if less than in the government’s initial fuel and electricity price increases.

Confronted by the challenges posed of bringing people together during a period of continued global health, the organisers of the Africa Energy Forum (aef) and Africa Investment Exchange (AIX): Power & Renewables have agreed to work in parallel to hold their industry-leading events in London during the week of 15-19 November.

Geneva-headquartered commodities trader Montfort Group has acquired Matola Terminal de Armazenamento de Petróleos’s oil product storage facility in the Mozambican port of Matola. The unit, with 58,000m3-plus of clean product storage capacity, will be owned, developed and operated in partnership with Malaysia-based trading company Energi Asia.

East African Crude Oil Pipeline (Eacop) has begun to line up suppliers and started the land acquisition process in Tanzania, ahead of construction of the 1,443km pipeline between Kabaale in Uganda and Tanga port in Tanzania.

Plans for the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline project have edged forward, with the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) announcing a call for expressions of interest for two consultancy contracts on the grandiose scheme.

State giant Sonangol’s gas and renewable energy business unit chair Manuel Barros said construction was due to start in Q3 2022 on a butane gas storage facility in Malanje, 380km inland from the capital Luanda. “The purpose of the facility is to increase the storage and delivery volume of the product in Malanje and neighbouring provinces,” he said

Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) executive secretary Simbi Wabote said the 10,000 b/d Duport modular refinery is on track to be completed before the end of December.

Sonatrach president director-general was elected to head the Association Algérienne de l’Industrie du Gaz (AIG).

The Kipevu oil terminal is due to start operations in January, substantially increasing Kenya’s capacity to handle petroleum products for its domestic market and those destined for Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.