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The International Finance Corporation (IFC) on 24 July announced a €300m ($337m) financing package for expansion of the Azito Energie gas power plant. The project, known as Azito IV, will add a 181MW gas turbine and 72MW steam turbine to operate in combined cycle, taking total installed capacity to 710MW, with an anticipated production of 2,170GWh/yr. The IFC said the additional power from Azito would displace less efficient and older thermal units in the market, substantially reducing costs and emissions, and contribute to meeting growing domestic and regional electricity demand.

Whoever wins the second round of the closely fought presidential election on 21 December, Tunisia will become the only country to have emerged from the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings with a fully functioning democracy. The country will set a further global precedent in 2015 if, as is likely, its new government decides to authorise exploitation of shale oil and gas reserves.For some months, Royal Dutch Shell has been poised to sign a development contract with senior officials from Entreprise Tunisienne d’Activités Pétrolières (Etap), but various political approvals are needed before this can happen.

The government is seeking to recruit legal and transaction advisers to revive the Banda gas-to-power project, with funding from the World Bank. The project consists of the offshore Banda gas field, a 180MW power plant and a 120MW second phase extension, as well as transmission infrastructure to supply power within Mauritania and to Senegal and Mali. The government says the field’s 590bcf of proven reserves are enough to supply 60mcf/d for 20 years. Of the total 300MW to be generated, some 60% will be exported and 40% will be reserved for domestic consumption.

Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd (MOL) and Karadeniz Holding AS announced on 30 August that they would develop the first LNG-to-powership project in Mozambique. The project, which will be implemented under the joint brand Karmol, involves mooring a FSRU next to Karadeniz subsidiary Karpower International BV’s 115MW Irem Sultan powership, which is operating in Nacala port. The agreement was announced at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama in August.

With no prior indication of another change at the top of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), President Goodluck Jonathan on 1 August sacked group managing director Andrew Yakubu. It was announced that acting group executive director exploration and production Dr Joseph Thlama Dawha, who came out of retirement in April, would replace Yakubu, whose departure has not been explained (see AE view). Also sacked was NNPC subsidiary Nigeria Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) managing director Victor Briggs, who replaced Abiye Membere in March 2013.

Société Béninoise d’Energie Electrique is seeking bids from experienced gas suppliers to supply gas via the West African Gas Pipeline for the 120MW Maria Gléta 2 dual-fuel power plant, which was formally inaugurated in March. The tender is funded by the Agence Française de Développement.

Energy minister Boakye Agyarko was sacked on 6 August after an attempt to renegotiate a build, own, operate, transfer deal for a 250MW combined-cycle gas turbine plant with its owner, Africa Middle East Resources Investment Group (Ameri), and engineering, procurement and construction contractor Metka went wrong. President’s head of communications Eugene Arhin told Joy News the decision was a result of the botched deal.Akufo-Addo put himself in the line of fire at the end of July when he approved an apparently renegotiated deal for the plant by executive order.

AIM-listed Aminex has announced a share placing and open offer to raise £19.5m ($25.4m) with Oman’s Zubair Corporation acting as cornerstone investor. The fundraising follows the start of gas production at the Kiliwani North field in April. Proceeds will be used principally to finance the drilling of the Ntorya-2 appraisal well and the Ntorya-3 exploration well on the Ruvuma licence. The Ntorya-1 discovery drilled in 2012 tested 20mcf/d of gas, with 139 b/d of associated condensate.

Eni’s planned exploration campaign in the East Nile Delta Basin has provoked speculation about the likelihood of a massive gas find similar to the deep offshore Zohr field whose discovery in 2015 dramatically changed the outlook for the Egyptian upstream. On 14 August, the Italian company announced it had signed the Nour exploration licence and expected to drill an exploration well later this year. The 739km2 area is located approximately 50km offshore in relatively shallow water depths of 50-400 metres.

The reunification of the management of Libya’s rival national oil corporations after more than a year of division is an important victory for the Tripoli-based chairman Mustafa Sanalla. His authority over Libya’s oil industry is now unquestioned even in Cyrenaica, which until recently was making repeated efforts to set up its own oil export deals and to establish an independent stream of oil revenue.

BP has given TechnipFMC a front-end engineering design contract for the floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit for the Tortue/Ahmeyim gas field development.TechnipFMC said the agreement provided a mechanism to move to an engineering, procurement, construction and installation contract at a later stage. “TechnipFMC will work on defining the technology and equipment scope and brings expertise to deliver major projects, leveraging extensive experience with Chinese fabrication,” the company said.

The Africa50 infrastructure fund has invested in Azura Power Holdings Ltd (APHL), a power project developer backed by UK private equity firm Actis that holds a majority stake in the 459MW Azura-Edo gas power plant. The December transaction allowed African Infrastructure Investment Managers’ African Infrastructure Investment Fund 2 and one other shareholder to exit the project.

A Special Parliamentary Committee on the Gas Sub-Sector delivered a summary of its report in Tanzania’s parliament on 2 June. The committee was tasked in November 2017 with deciding whether contracts in the gas sector contained “unconscionable terms” which could be revised under the infamous Natural Wealth and Resources Contracts (Review and Renegotiation of Unconscionable Terms) Act of 2017, as well as identifying flaws in gas laws and policies, and recommending better ways to manage and regulate the sector and to select and negotiate with private partners.

Angola LNG Limited has entered into multi-year sales agreements for liquefied natural gas (LNG) with Vitol and with RWE Supply & Trading. Under the agreements, ALNG cargoes will be delivered to Vitol and RWE at destinations around the world. “Angola LNG is operating safely and reliably. This agreement is a further demonstration of Angola’s increasing role in global LNG, providing LNG all over the world and establishing relationships with a series of important international LNG market players,” Angola LNG Marketing said.

President Alassane Dramane Ouattara was on hand to inaugurate the 275MW Soubré hydroelectric power plant on 2 November, reflecting the priority given by his government to infrastructure development and marking another step in Côte d’Ivoire’s efforts to raise its installed generation capacity to 4GW by 2020. The following day saw a three-hour nationwide blackout, but many Ivorians would still agree that delivery on projects, as well as some adroit political manoeuvring, has helped to consolidate Ouattara’s hold on a volatile polity.