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Djibouti President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh on 3 March presided over a foundation stone-laying ceremony for a gas pipeline, liquefaction plant and export terminal at Damerjog to enable Ethiopia to export gas to China. An official statement said the new 700km pipeline will transport up to 12bcm/yr of natural gas from Ethiopia to Djibouti. The liquefaction plant will have capacity to produce up to 10m t/yr of liquefied natural gas.

The imminent launch of the gas independent power producer (IPP) procurement programme has sparked fresh discussions about the mechanics of the process. A request for proposals (RfP) is expected in April or May and it seems that, until then, many developers’ questions will remain unanswered. While there is enthusiasm for the programme, there are numerous complexities to be resolved, and issues about how the plants will be coordinated with Eskom may push long-ignored policy decisions back into the spotlight.

For the first time in many years, the hard pressed Algerian government is considering an increase in electric power tariffs – a policy certain to meet intense opposition at a politically sensitive time. At the same time, the national gas and power utility Sonelgaz intends to raise investment finance through a domestic bond and is also contemplating an internal restructuring programme. Speaking at Sonelgaz’s general meeting in Algiers on 28 September, the company’s long-standing president director-general Noureddine Bouterfa told the assembled directors, managers and employee representatives that they needed to work with the state to implement gradual prices rises that “will not bring social cohesion into question”.

. Petroceltic International has announced the start of development drilling on the Ain Tsila gas and condensate field. The newly built Sinopec rig 50117 arrived on the Isarene permit in November 2015 and was assembled on site. Development well AT-10 spudded on 21 February. AT-10 is located in the north of the field, some 3.4km from the field discovery well AT-1, and 2km from the appraisal well AT-8, which both delivered gas flow rates of more than 30mcf/d on test. The vertical well is targeting the Ordovician reservoir formation to a planned total depth of 1,989 metres.

The Africa50 infrastructure fund has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government to structure and mobilise financing for the expansion of the 300MW Centrale Electrique du Congo gas-fired power plant at Pointe Noire. The project envisages expanding the plant’s capacity from 300MW to 450MW in the short term, and possibly to 900MW by 2027.

Mozambique stands to receive some $350m in capital gains tax from Eni’s sale to ExxonMobil of a 25% stake in its Rovuma Basin Area 4. Tax authority official Anibal Balango told reporters that, as an overseas company, Eni was eligible to pay tax on only half the value of the $2.8bn farm-in deal. That value was reduced to $1.1bn after existing investments by the Italian company were accounted for, giving a tax rate of about 32%, the authority said.

Following the start-up of production in July, Eni has started delivery of gas from the Sankofa field on the Offshore Cape Three Points (OCTP) Block to Ghana National Petroleum Corporation. Gas is flowing from two of the four deep-water subsea wells and gas volumes will increase gradually as the country’s downstream gas infrastructure undergoes further commissioning.Partner Vitol said the project would provide approximately 180mcf/d for at least 15 years, sufficient to supply half of Ghana’s power generation requirements.

Schlumberger subsidiary OneSubsea has been awarded an engineering, procurement and construction contract worth more than $170m from Belayim Petroleum Company (Petrobel) to supply the subsea production systems for the first stage of the Zohr gas field development. Petrobel, a joint venture between Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation and Eni, is responsible for development and operations at Zohr.

Sonatrach chief executive Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour launched Sonatrach’s long-planned SH2030 transformation strategy in Algiers on 30 April. His headline ambition for the company he joined in March 2017 is to turn it into one of the five largest national oil companies in the world. To achieve this, its total production will have to increase to more than 3m boe/d, rivalling the output of National Iranian Oil Company, China National Petroleum Corporation or Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.

Oando plc has announced an agreement with Helios Investment Partners to acquire 49% of its midstream business subsidiary Oando Gas and Power (OGP) for $115.8m. Helios has already bought into Oando’s downstream business in a joint venture with Vitol. Oando completed the acquisition of ConocoPhillips’ upstream oil and gas business in Nigeria in 2014, leaving it with a much-expanded exploration and production portfolio but also significant debt. At end-June 2016, the group had total short-and long-term borrowings of 279.7bn naira ($888.6m) against 138.2bn naira of total equity.

Operator Maurel & Prom has said 2019 gas production from the Mnazi Bay field in southern Tanzania was 70.3mcf/d, down 15% from 2018. The decline in production was due to an early and heavy rainy season in eastern Africa in 2019, which led to much greater availability of hydropower plants at the expense of gas demand, M&P said. Partner Wentworth Resources said production had also suffered from the temporary shut-in of the MB-2 well, which came back on stream in December, and from increased gas supply from the Songo Songo field into the National Natural Gas Infrastructure pipeline.

Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) is planning a bid round for unconventional resources following the successful drilling of a test well. EGPC deputy chief executive Ahmed Abdel Fattah told Africa Oil Week that Apache’s Amoun NE 3 well in the Shushan Basin in the Western Desert had tested successfully for shale gas. Energy-hungry Egypt is keen to prove up more gas reserves to meet domestic power demand and export commitments.

Ever keen to put a positive spin on developments, the Moroccan government is planning to create a national gas logistics company to make the state a key stakeholder in a new gas sector strategy, which is now planned for introduction “before 2030”. Energy, mines and sustainable development minister Abdelaziz Rabbah told Casablanca business monthly Economie Entreprises that this would promote public-private partnerships (PPPs) in major gas sector developments, adding that tenders were being prepared for advisers to draw up an appropriate PPP platform.

Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia confirmed that “it is time” for Algeria to revise its hydrocarbons law to attract investors and raise export revenues, speaking at the launch of two new gas carriers in Arzew on 1 October. While he gave no details about how the law would change, the official Algérie Presse Service (APS) reported energy minister Mustapha Guitouni as saying the reforms would hinge on improving fiscal terms, which were poorly adapted to the current low oil price environment.

Total, South Africa’s Gigajoule Group and Matola Gas Company (MGC) signed a joint development agreement (JDA) on 27 November for a project to import LNG to Matola port to supply local and regional markets.The project involves a permanently moored floating storage and regasification unit in Matola harbour connected to a gas-fired power plant in the Beluluane Industrial Park, MGC’s gas pipeline infrastructure in Maputo province, and the South African gas network.