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The Maputo government is trying to attract more majors to its offshore acreage, just as industry giants TotalEnergies and Eni ready themselves for further development of their rival liquified natural gas projects in the politically unstable north, writes James Gavin

A year after initial awards were first announced, minister of petroleum and mineral resources Tarek El-Molla has signed oil and gas exploration agreements with six major IOCs and their Egyptian partner Tharwa Petroleum. Seven of the agreements involving Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (Egas) are for offshore areas in the Mediterranean, while two are with South Valley Egyptian Petroleum Holding Company (Ganope) covering areas in the Red Sea. The ministry has said it expects to sign three more agreements soon.

The enthusiasm of majors towards the kingdom has waned as their global priorities have shifted, but several smaller companies are looking to sell gas to local power and industrial clients. But even with the government’s ambitious LNG import scheme apparently shelved, electricity capacity seems comfortable and industrial demand is uncertain, meaning commercialising gas reserves is far from easy for ambitious minnows, writes Jon Marks.

With EU and other advocates expressing huge excitement over the potential for green hydrogen and associated products that can speed up the carbon transition, South Africa is striving to develop its nascent industry – even while it struggles to meet existing power demand and the country’s sovereign credit rating has tanked

Driven by a political imperative to fix the more than decade-long electric power crisis, General Electric Company of Libya (Gecol) has pushed through a massive round of maintenance at eight of its gas-fired power plants to prepare them for expected increases in demand during the winter.

The UK Court of Appeal found against the campaigning group Friends of the Earth in a mid-January ruling on UK government support for the project. However, there are still many obstacles for those seeking to raise finance from western sources for Sub-Saharan hydrocarbons projects.

Saipem chief executive Alessandro Puliti has announced the date he expects onshore work to “gradually restart” for the TotalEnergies-operated Mozambique Liquefied Natural Gas (MLNG) project.

Shell has underlined Mauritania’s rising profile by signing a production sharing contract for offshore Block C2. While one supermajor plans to start initial exploration, BP and partners have agreed their preferred development concept for phase two of the Mauritania/Senegal Greater Tortue Ahmeyim integrated LNG project – finally moving that scheme towards a final investment decision, write James Gavin and Marc Howard.

African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank)’s impact development arm the Fund for Export Development in Africa (Feda) has concluded the purchase of 5% of Lagos-based electricity generator Geregu Power. The deal is the latest example of how the Cairo-based trade bank has morphed from being a staid institution devoted to trade finance in Africa to a much more punchy outfit.

Negotiations with Shell and Equinor for the estimated $30bn Lindi liquefied natural gas (LNG) project (also known as Tanzania LNG) have been completed, and contracts are being written up, energy minister January Makamba said on 6 March.

Political, social and legal opposition to Eni’s multi-billion-dollar upstream gas development deal is driven by an alliance of fief holders who may not be able to stop the deal, but could make it harder and more expensive to complete. The opposition reflects continuing dysfunction, raising the prospect of more blockades and disruption, writes Mohamed Eljarh*, with John Hamilton.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) has partnered with British major BP in a bid to buy 50% of Israel’s NewMed Energy, the largest shareholder in the Leviathan gas field offshore Israel. The deal was presented as a first step in a potentially broader eastern Mediterranean play.

Abdelhamid Al-Dabaiba’s government has granted permission for the construction of two highly ambitious power generation projects. Cork-based AG Energy, with links to the former Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, is in line to build what could be Libya’s first private sector solar PV plant. Qatar-based Urbacon Trading and Construction (UCC) has been authorised to build a large gas-fired plant in Zliten. Neither company has built power plants in Libya until now, but UCC has teamed up with Germany’s Siemens Energy, Tripoli-based Acesco Consulting Engineering and Services and Philadelphia-based Hill International, who bring substantial experience in major construction projects in the country, while AG has been promoting projects in Libya and the wider region for a decade.

By 2027, almost 30% of Africa’s electricity will be generated using natural gas, a figure that rises to 45% if dual-fuel plants are included. Despite questions from some quarters over its applicability as a ‘transition fuel’, African Energy Live Data expects 18.3GW generated from natural gas to come online by 2027. However, the project pipeline to 2027 also shows that the share of the continental energy mix taken up by gas is declining in favour of a bigger role for renewables.

Among the more positive signals emerging from the Nigerian oil and gas sector is the prospect of more liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects. However, many of Nigeria's West African neighbours already having an FLNG project under construction or reactivation.