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Sonelgaz subsidiary Sociéte Algérienne de Production de l’Electricité has given Italy’s Ansaldo Energia a E170m contract to supply the 340MW Ain Djasser III open cycle gas turbine power plant in Batna. The contract was awarded following an international tender. Ansaldo also built the 260MW Ain Djasser I, commissioned in August 2009, and the 260MW Ain Djasser II. The new plant will comprise two 170MW gas turbines. Ansaldo already has a total installed capacity of more than 4,400MW in Algeria.

President João Lourenço has issued a decree aimed at speeding up the oil and gas licensing process to encourage new investment in the hydrocarbons sector and revitalise exploration to replace depleting reserves. Presidential Decree 86/18, dated 2 April, eliminates the prequalification phase of the licensing process for all new acreage allocated by state petroleum company Sonangol. The legislation also raises the value threshold above which purchases or contracts for services require public tender.

Tokyo Gas Company and Centrica LNG Company have jointly signed heads of agreement (HoA) for the long-term offtake of 2.6m t/yr of liquefied natural gas from Mozambique Area 1 as operator Anadarko Petroleum prepares for a final investment decision (FID) in H1 2019. Anadarko said the agreement represented a significant portion of the sales target it had set to enable FID on the project, which would develop a two-train onshore plant at Afungi in northern Mozambique with capacity of 12.8m t/yr processing gas from the Golfinho/Atum fields.

Backed by the US Power Africa initiative, Endeavor Energy has four projects close to sanction in West Africa aiming to fill short to medium-term demand gaps with a mix of imported and domestic gas and heavy fuel oil. Two of the projects are in Ghana, where there is urgent need for new capacity. The 344MW Bridge Power fast deployment scheme at Tema aims to tackle the problem of limited gas supply in Ghana’s eastern hub by using imported liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Chief executive Sean Long told African Energy in an interview that LPG was cheaper than crude oil or diesel in the short term and the plant was designed to switch to natural gas once it became available, whether via the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP) or Ghanaian domestic gas.

Easigas and Reatile Gaz have agreed to merge their respective liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) interests in Southern Africa. Easigas is a wholly owned subsidiary of France’s Rubis Group with operations in South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho and Botswana. Reatile Gaz, which has LPG operations in South Africa and is active in Mozambique and Zimbabwe, is owned 55% by Reatile Group and 45% by Engen Petroleum. The merged operation will be owned 60% by Rubis Group and 40% by Reatile Gaz, and will offer improved efficiency by combining supply and distribution infrastructure.

Fitch Ratings on 7 September downgraded oil and gas infrastructure company Seven Energy International’s issuer default rating to CC from B-, and cut the secured rating of Seven Energy Finance’s 10.25% $300m secured notes due 2021 to C from CCC. Fitch said the downgrade reflected “a re-assessment of the significant ongoing liquidity, security and execution risks that Seven Energy continues to face. While the company is making progress in its negotiations with lenders to defer repayments under the $377m Accugas IV facility, which if and when completed should improve its short-term liquidity, liquidity over the medium-term is likely to remain very tight and will remain largely determined by external developments.”

Tanzania’s plans for competitive procurement are moving ahead, with Tanzania Electric Supply Company (Tanesco) expected to issue a request for qualification imminently for the 250MW Somanga Fungu gas-to-power project, transaction adviser K&M Advisors president Alfonso Guzman told African Energy. “The form of development is still under discussion and will be finalised before the request for proposals is issued to prequalified bidders,” Guzman said. Tanesco has struggled to keep up with payments to independent power producers (IPPs) in the country. A more active role in Somanga Fungu for the utility might help alleviate fears about receiving payments, although questions remain about its reliability as a partner.

Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SNH) and Perenco have announced a final investment decision for an eight-year floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) project to sell gas to Russia’s Gazprom. On 27 November, Gazprom Marketing & Trading Singapore, Perenco Cameroon, Golar Hilli and Golar Cameroon signed agreements for the project, based on the allocation of 500bcf of natural gas reserves to be supplied by SNH and Perenco from the Sanaga Sud and Ebome fields. Golar will own and operate the Hilli vessel which is under conversion at the Keppel shipyard in Singapore. First LNG deliveries from the terminal are expected to start in H2 2017.

Ministers from Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea and Ghana signed a protocol of agreement on 16 May creating a framework under which all three countries will work together to explore the possibility of establishing a jointly owned regional gas company. ‘All three countries are cognisant of the benefits that would be derived from the regional gas company, including new revenue streams from the sale of hitherto unexploited natural gas, creation of new jobs, and facilitating access to gas by power plants, industries and homes that need them as a source of energy or feedstock,” Equatorial Guinea’s Ministry of Mines, Industry and Energy said in a statement.

Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) and Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (Egas) have both launched bid rounds. EGPC is offering 11 exploration blocks in the Gulf of Suez, Western Desert and the Eastern Desert sedimentary basins, with bids due by 1 October. Egas is offering 16 blocks, 13 in the Mediterranean Sea and three in the onshore Nile Delta, with bids due by 8 October.

Gasol has agreed to buy upstream company Energie de Côte d’Ivoire (Enerci) from GDF Suez E&P International. Enerci is an Ivorian-registered company that owns a 12% stake in the gas-producing CI-27 licence that includes the Foxtrot field. “The acquisition provides us with an opportunity to bring a revenue-generating, profitable and self-funding asset into the group and, as such, represents a key milestone in our development as well as a stable, financeable cash-flow base from which to grow,” said Gasol chief operating officer Alan Buxton.

A wave of strikes at industrial facilities across the south has sent gas and other production plummeting – gas output fell to below 200mcf/d in March, and almost certainly further since then – and has led President Béji Caïd Essebsi to send in troops. The incidents confirm the extent that strikes, sit-ins and other protests continue to affect production and project implementation, six years after the Arab Spring.

Parliamentary approval for a deal to install up to 400MW at Tema opens the way for a power purchase agreement (PPA) to be signed by the Early Power Ltd consortium of Endeavor Energy, the local Sage Petroleum and GE. Local advocacy groups have raised concerns about pricing, but the Bridge Power project is the only new scheme working its way through the system. Other independent power projects (IPPs) have been stalled by World Bank and other donors’ concerns over financing.

With cabinet approval for a comprehensive new National Gas Policy (NGP) and ministers proposing other initiatives to drive the economy out of recession and improve living standards for the majority of Nigeria’s 186m population, President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration promises to implement genuine reforms that could eventually confirm Nigeria’s claim to become a major emerging market. Properly implemented, the NGP and associated policies could open the way for a functioning electricity supply industry to emerge.

In its latest annual medium-term gas market report, published in early June, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has revised downward its forecasts for global gas demand between 2014 and 2020. Planned supply, meanwhile, is abundant, with liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects competing not only against each other, and piped gas, but also against cheap coal and increasingly competitive renewable alternatives.Global gas demand is forecast to increase by an average 2%/yr to 2020, down from 2.3% over the past ten years, according to the IEA.