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Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) managing director James Mataragio has told African Energy that talks on a host government agreement for the estimated $30bn Tanzania liquified natural gas (LNG) project being spearheaded by Equinor and Shell will resume this month.

The Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) has extended the contract for the 56MW Muhoroni gas turbines GT1 and GT2 in Kisumu until a new geothermal supply for the region has stabilised. The turbines belong to state-owned Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) and feed western Kenya.

Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) appears to have decided to retain its 15% stake in the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (Eacop) and not to exercise an option to reduce its holding to 5% in the project, which is expected to come to the international market for debt finance later this year

Opec’s second smallest producer faces a slow decline in output while it tries to revive international interest in its maturing fields after a planned 35-block licensing round was torpedoed by Covid-19, writes James Gavin Gabonese crude oil production fell by a further 6% last year, to an average of 195,000 b/d, and the latest Opec figures show the slide accelerated in Q1 2021, when just 181,000 b/d was produced. There was a slight increase, to 185,000 b/d, in April but that still means Gabonese production is down 50% from its 1997 peak of 370,000 b/d.

London AIM-listed Sound Energy has given further details of its reshaped project to develop and monetise Tendrara’s 377bcf discovered natural gas resource, securing a powerful local partner prior to it raising funds for its initial micro liquefied natural gas (LNG) project and moving to a final investment decision.

Announcing Q1 21 results on 20 May, SDX Energy chief executive Mark Reid thanked London-based multilateral the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for renewing a $10m credit facility. The EBRD in December signed an agreement for Project Green Light II to provide SDX Energy Morocco up to $25m from a senior secured reserve-based loan, to part-finance its $65m investment plan to expand operations in the kingdom.

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) was hit hard by the pandemic but there are indications that the region will recover some of the lost ground in 2021. Live Data has already confirmed more than 1.8GW of new capacity has come online this year, although 900MW of this was in South Africa.

The World Bank Group’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) said on 31 May that a case brought by Symbion Power Tanzania Ltd (SPTL) and its owners Lord Richard Westbury and Paul Hinks against the Tanzanian government had been dropped. The end of the arbitration, which was registered on 31 May 2019, is another indication that the Tanzanian government is moving to settle high-profile disputes with international companies.

Algeria has long been a major gas flarer but time may be running out for the practice as the EU moves to enforce its carbon border adjustment mechanism, writes Ajay Ubhi. Algeria’s consistently high level of gas flaring could start to threaten its gas export market to the Europe once the European Union’s carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) comes into force.

The Ghanaian government’s position in the offshore unitisation dispute is that Eni’s Sankofa and Springfield’s Afina fields have identical reservoir and fluid characterises. Springfield was awarded operatorship of the WCTP Block 2 in 2016, in its first upstream operation having previously been focused on oilfield services and fuel distribution and trading.

The governments of South Africa – under the influence of less-than-liberal, traditional nationalist thinking in the ruling African National Congress (ANC) – and Mozambique (which may have been persuaded by regional politics to follow its powerful neighbour) could not resist the temptation to call for their state companies to pre-empt the sale of Sasol’s 30% stake in the Republic of Mozambique Pipeline Investments Company (Rompco) natural gas pipeline.

The need to preserve land was one of the reasons put forward by Bui Power Authority deputy chief executive Anthony Osafo-Kissi for the development of the continent’s first floating solar photovoltaic (FPV) and co-located solar plant. A 1MW pilot project on the Bui reservoir was commissioned in Q1 2021, along with the first 50MWp tranche of an eventual 250MWp ground-mounted scheme beside the dam.

The 11MWp solar PV plant at the Mwale Medical and Technology City (MMTC) in Butere, Kakamega county, Kenya will be commissioned this September, MMTC told African Energy Live Data.

The 40MWac Nkhotakota solar PV plant in Malawi is on track to reach financial close later this year or early next year, in time to start operating in Q4 2022.

London AIM-listed Sound Energy announced that its Sound Energy Morocco East (Semel) subsidiary’s micro liquified natural gas (mLNG) phase one development plan at Tendrara had secured a binding ten-year, take-or-pay LNG sale and purchase agreement with, and equity placing by, major Moroccan corporate Afriquia Gaz.