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Concerns are rising about Algeria’s ability to finance major projects from its fast-diminishing foreign reserves, but state energy giant Sonatrach continues to make strategic investments, on 30 May completing the purchase of 8.04% of the Medgaz pipeline company’s equity. The purchase from Abu Dhabi state investment fund Mubadala gives Sonatrach a 51% majority stake in the 8.2bcm/yr pipeline running to Spain, which started operation in 2011 and is slated for further expansion, market conditions permitting.

SDX Energy has announced the spudding of the KSR-14 development well on the Sebou permit, the first of a nine-well drilling programme on the Sebou, Gharb Centre and Lalla Mimouna permits. The drilling campaign aims to increase local gas sales volumes in Morocco by up to 50% and boost reserves by more than 100%. SDX expects to announce results from KSR-14 in mid-October. If successful, the well will be completed, flow tested and connected to the existing infrastructure.

The Early Power consortium of Denham Capital’s Endeavor Energy, Ghanaian energy trader Sage Petroleum, and General Electric (GE) announced on 25 October that it has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Electricity Corporation of Ghana (ECG) for its two-phase 400MW Bridge Power project at Tema. The signing follows parliamentary approval for the deal and includes the option for a five-year extension. Power will be sold to ECG at $0.124/kWh. Bridge Power, which will be the largest liquid petroleum gas (LPG) plant in the world when complete, according to Endeavor, will be developed in phases.

Houston-based Endeavor Energy and local partner Starenergie2073, led by Richard Amon, are squaring up for a potential legal battle after their joint development agreement to develop Côte d’Ivoire’s 375MW Songon gas-to-power project turned sour. While Endeavor has funded two years of preparatory work and was awaiting the results of an EPC tender, Amon signed his own contract with China Energy Engineering Corporation to build and operate the unit.

The Petroleum Agency of South Africa has granted local company Tosaco Energy three onshore technical cooperation permits to explore for gas in Mpumalanga province. Tosaco, a sister company of the Tosaco Holding Company which owns 25% in Total South Africa, is a majority black-owned South African exploration and production company focused on developing onshore gas.

ExxonMobil and Eni signed a sale and purchase agreement on 9 March enabling the US supermajor to take an indirect 25% stake in Area 4 for $2.8bn in cash. Eni will continue to lead on the Coral South floating liquefied natural gas project, while ExxonMobil will lead the construction and operation of natural gas liquefaction facilities onshore. “This operating model will enable the use of best practices and skills within Eni and ExxonMobil with each company focusing on distinct and clearly defined scopes while preserving the benefits of a fully integrated project,” Eni said.

Gabon Oil Company has signed a cooperation agreement with Russia’s Zarubezhneft covering joint oil and gas projects in Gabon. A statement from the Russian company said the agreement, which it described as “a roadmap for future cooperation between the companies on possible implementation of oil and gas projects in Gabon”, was signed in Istanbul on the sidelines of the World Petroleum Congress. The roadmap agreement followed a memorandum of understanding signed in early June during the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.

Samsung Engineering’s $800m contract with Groupement Timimoun to complete the south western field development jointly owned by Sonatrach, Total and Cepsa is the latest indication that progress is underway in this area after years of disappointment and false starts. The other companies developing gas fields nearby are GDF Suez at Touat and Repsol, RWE and Edison at Reggane Nord. All these projects have suffered years of delay as Sonatrach changed its mind on the routing of the planned GR5 gas pipeline to the Hassi R’mel hub.

In office for just over a year, the Jubilee Alliance government led by Kenyatta and deputy president William Ruto has had a difficult start to its tenure. As well as the trials at the International Criminal Court (AE 250/21) and accusations of a lack of preparedness in the wake of September’s terrorist strike on the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi, commentators speak of a spike in corruption since the two assumed office, and scandals certainly seem to have permeated the higher tiers of government.

Shoreline Energy Limited has signed up Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd as a partner in an agreement to explore opportunities to buy, market, distribute and sell natural gas to consumers and companies in the Victoria Island, Ikoyi, Lekki and Epe areas of Lagos.

Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (Egas) has signed concession agreements for blocks awarded last year from its 2015 international bid round. Italy’s Eni will operate the North El Hammad Block in the Nile Delta with a 37.5% stake, alongside BP with 37.5% and Total with 25%. The block covers an area of 1,927km2 to the west of the Abu Madi West and Baltim/Baltim South development areas, where Eni recently made the Nooros and Baltim South West discoveries .BP will operate the North Ras El Esh Block with 50%, while Eni holds the other 50%. The block, which covers an area of 1,389km2, is located north of Damietta and southwest of the Temsah and Port Fouad development areas.

Kosmos Energy has announced another gas discovery with the Teranga-1 exploration well in Senegal’s Cayar Offshore Profond Block. The well was drilled to a total depth of 4,485 metres in nearly 1,800 metres of water and encountered 31 metres of gas pay in the Lower Cenomanian objective. “Well results confirm that a prolific inboard gas fairway extends approximately 200km from the Marsouin-1 well in Mauritania through the Greater Tortue area on the maritime boundary to the Teranga-1 well in Senegal,” Kosmos said.

Sound Energy has received a proposal from Advisory & Finance Group Investment Bank (AFG), which is fund manager to Sound’s Morocco partner OGIF, to fund a pipeline linking Tendrara to the Gazoduc Maghreb Europe (GME) pipeline. The indicative, non-binding commercial proposal is for the provision of funding to cover the construction cost of the Tendrara Gas Export Pipeline (TGEP) of between $60m (the estimated cost of a 12-inch pipeline) and $100m (for a 20-inch pipeline).

Operator Eni has given the go-ahead for a project to develop the Sankofa, Sankofa East and Gye Name fields on the Offshore Cape Three Points (OCTP) Block. Eni, Vitol and Ghana National Petroleum Corporation signed an agreement on 27 January with President John Dramani Mahama and petroleum minister Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah to proceed with the OCTP integrated oil and gas project. First oil is expected in 2017, first gas in 2018 and the peak production will reach 80,000 boe/d in 2019, Eni said. A preliminary agreement was announced in December after more than a year of negotiations.

Private equity firm Denham Capital’s Africa-focused independent power company Endeavor Energy has signed a joint development agreement with GE and France’s Finagestion to develop the Ghana 1000 Project gas-to-power initiative to deliver more than 10GW to the grid. The first phase of the project, which will include the construction of a floating storage and regasification unit for the importation of liquefied natural gas (LNG), will produce 360MW in simple cycle mode by early 2017, according to a joint statement from the companies. When fully complete in early 2018, it will generate more than 540MW in combined cycle mode.