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Lawyers acting for Symbion Power Tanzania Ltd (SPTL) majority shareholders Richard Westbury and Paul Hinks have told the Tanzanian government that arbitration proceedings at the World Bank Group’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) will be resumed if the government does not return to the negotiating table. Negotiations to settle a long-running dispute over the power purchase agreement (PPA) for SPTL’s 112MW Ubungo gas power plant had shown some promise last year, with a series of meetings between SPTL executives and the government, but communication broke down in January.

Repsol has made a third gas discovery in the Illizi basin, in southeast Algeria. The discovery made in the Tan Emellel Sud-Ouest-2 (Teso-2) exploration well in the Sud-Est Illizi block is the continuation of an already very successful exploration campaign in the high-potential area, the Spanish company said. The gas discovery was made at a depth of 1,307 metres and well testing delivered a gas flow rate of 175,000m³/d, and 90 b/d of condensate with a 32/64” choke. Repsol aims to drill at least four more wells to appraise the previous discoveries within the Sud-Est Illizi block.

South Africa’s AEP Energy Africa has made its first acquisition, entering into a sale and purchase agreement to buy IberAfrica Power (East Africa) Limited, which owns and operates the 103.57MW diesel-fired Nairobi South power plant, for $61.57m. AEP plans to convert the plant’s two diesel-fired engines to run on liquefied natural gas.

A perennial issue in Tanzanian politics and business – the extent to which the East African state is exploited by international capital and should reap bigger yields from its natural resources – returned with a vengeance when, on 4 July, the National Assembly unanimously passed three laws covering natural resources investment. Tabled on 29 June, the ‘urgent status’ legislation will support President John Pombe Magufuli’s efforts to force energy and mining companies to give Tanzania a better deal – a cornerstone of his government’s populist appeal.

Total has started production from the Kaombo development on Block 32, 260km off the coast of Luanda. Kaombo Norte, the first floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit on the development, will produce an estimated 115,000 b/d of oil, while Kaombo Sul is expected to start up in 2019. Production will reach an estimated 230,000 b/d of oil at peak and the associated gas will be exported to the Angola LNG plant, in which Total holds a 13.6% stake.

Key Petroleum has added to its Tanzania acreage with a production-sharing agreement for the Songo Songo West area. The block, which Key will operate in a joint venture with the UK’s Aminex, lies adjacent to the producing gas field at Songo Songo Island and to the west of the recently discovered gas bearing structure at the Kiliwani North-1 well on the Nyuni block where Key holds a 20% stake. Testing of the well has just got under way.

London-based Rialto Energy has rounded off its restructuring with a new name – Azonto Petroleum, named after a Ghanaian dance. This year, the company has completely replaced its executive team, brought in Vitol as a partner, and renegotiated its licence for Côte d’Ivoire block CI-202 to give it more time to complete its work programme after it was obliged to cancel a rig contract earlier this year due to lack of funds. Presenting the new-look company at Global Pacific & Partners’ Africa Independents’ Forum in Cape Town on 26 November.

Moroccan officials say an ambitious plan to build a pipeline from Nigeria to Morocco is making progress, despite the daunting challenges involved in providing a ‘gas highway’ serving countries along its near 5,000km route. The projects fits into King Mohammed VI’s pivot toward Africa, focusing Moroccan investment and political energy on building greater south-south cooperation

The African Energy Live Data 2019 update shows that 9.6GW of net new capacity was added on the continent during the year. The figure includes off-grid and embedded plants in the public domain, as well as on-grid facilities. This is just over half of the capacity added in 2018 and significantly less than the five-year 2014-18 average of 13.2GW. The slowdown was widespread. In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) excluding South Africa, 2.8GW was added, the lowest amount since 2014 and also significantly lower than the 2014-18 average of 3.8GW.

Anadarko Petroleum has signed provisional liquefied natural gas (LNG) sales deals covering about two-thirds of the output of its first planned LNG train. In a statement accompanying its 2013 results, the US company said: “To date, the partners have reached multiple non-binding Heads of Agreement for long-term LNG sales to buyers in premium Asian markets covering approximately two-thirds of the first 5m t/yr train.” A number of Asian companies have stakes in the Anadarko and Eni-led consortia exploring offshore northern Mozambique, including Thailand’s PTTEP, India’s ONGC Videsh Ltd, Oil India and Bharat Petroleum, Japan’s Mitsui, South Korea’s Kogas and China National Petroleum Corporation.

Norway’s BW Offshore has postponed the target date for a final investment decision (FID) on the Kudu gas development to mid-year, as the project continues to seek financing in the face of Namibia’s reluctance to provide bank guarantees. In its present configuration, the offshore gas field will be developed to supply a 442MW power plant, half the size previously planned.

Ophir Energy has signed heads of agreements (HoAs) for liquefied natural gas (LNG) offtake from the Fortuna floating LNG project with six counterparties, all of whom are established LNG buyers in European and Asian markets.The company said it had revised down its estimate of the gross capital expenditure required to first gas from $800m to $600m, based on recent input from the upstream front-end engineering design (FEED) work.

Despite Ghana’s severe power shortages, and the delays to the start of gas production from Jubilee, Kosmos Energy says lack of power generation capacity is limiting initial output. Chief executive Andy Inglis told a conference call to discuss Kosmos’ Q1 results that about 75mcf/d was being exported to the onshore processing plant at Atuabo by the end of the quarter. “The power plant downstream at Aboadze continues to be the bottleneck on additional export,” he said. “We expect the installation of additional gas-fired power generation at Aboadze in H2 will alleviate this issue.

BP and Kosmos Energy have found more gas in an appraisal well on the Greater Tortue development area as Kosmos prepares to farm down part of its interest. Kosmos said the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim-1 (GTA-1) well, drilled on the eastern anticline within the development area, encountered approximately 30 metres of net gas pay in a high-quality Albian reservoir. The Greater Tortue Ahmeyim LNG project is on track to deliver first gas in H1 2022, and the well, which has been designed as a future producer, will be used to further optimise the development drilling plans for the BP-operated project, Kosmos said.

Ophir Energy’s board said on 30 January it had agreed to a revised 55p/share bid from Indonesia’s Medco Energi, valuing the company at £390.6m ($500m). London-based Ophir said the offer represented a premium of 65.7% to the closing price of 33.2p on 28 December before the approach was made public. Ophir in mid-January rejected a bid from Medco at 48.5p/share.