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State-owned utility Office National de l’Electricité et de l’Eau Potable (Onee) has issued a tender for the construction of a 900MW open cycle gas turbine (OCGT) power plant adjacent to Al-Wahda dam and the Maghreb-Europe Gas Pipeline (GME). The project’s estimated cost is MD6bn ($592m).

A first cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) had arrived at Italy’s new regasification terminal in Piombino, and had begun offloading at the Tuscan facility, Eni said on 5 May. The LNG was supplied from the Damietta liquefaction plant in Egypt, which Eni now operates in a joint venture with Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (Egas).

International energy majors are investing to raise oil and gas output and developing solar plants, while others are looking to tap into Angola’s critical minerals and other resources plays. With news flow suggesting considerable activity in diverse energy-related industries, but wary of governance shortfalls, African Energy asks: is it time for investors to get excited about Angola?

The host government agreement for the Lindi liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, widely known as Tanzania LNG, and a production-sharing agreement (PSA) for offshore blocks 1, 2 and 4 are expected to be signed in the coming weeks.

Developers of small hydropower (SHP) projects in East Africa are facing greater challenges in raising finance for their schemes, as a result of weak national grids and a shift away from take-or-pay arrangements by offtakers, according to one industry figure.

Nigeria’s recently launched Energy Transition Plan aims to make Abuja’s target of net zero emissions by 2060 a reality, but the debt-for-climate deal proposed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo could be even more important in relieving more immediate economic pressures – if creditors agree to provide the funds requested for a new deal that promotes gas as the key ‘transition fuel’.

Growing alarm over the scale of the climate emergency and the impossibility of limiting the global temperature increase to just 1.5ºC by 2100 has put Africa’s climate finance conundrum into the spotlight during COP27 in Egypt.  Divisions over the future role of gas in energy transition have split the continent – which will not get all the new money it wants to help it adapt to the consequences of climate change, writes John Hamilton in Sharm El Sheikh.

United States climate envoy John Kerry has held out the prospect of additional help being offered at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) to counties in Africa and elsewhere that are being badly affected by climate change issues.

Questions remain about the future of Gaz du Cameroun (GDC), after its parent company, Victoria Oil and Gas (Vog) was placed in administration on 20 February. GDC  – one of Africa’s few onshore gas producers that sells to a local clientele – is involved in a dispute with the government having announced a 20% tariff increase from 1 June,  its first price hike for gas in a decade.

Banjul is hoping enthusiasm over exploration and production (E&P) developments in the so-called Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Guinea (MSGBC) Basin – in particularly the neighbouring Senegalese offshore – will pique interest in Gambia’s potential as an oil and gas play.

Following a fall in African liquefied natural gas exports in 2022, there are signs of fresh momentum in a number of large onshore and floating LNG projects in key markets including Nigeria and Mozambique, write James Gavin and African Energy staff.

Momentum continues to build for the two large export-oriented liquefied natural gas projects on Mozambique’s Afungi peninsula. TotalEnergies has confirmed longstanding speculation that work will resume at Mozambique LNG this year, while ExxonMobil is aiming for a final investment decision on its Rovuma project in 2025 – underpinned by the continuing role of foreign security forces in Cabo Delgado, writes Marc Howard.

Seven plaintiffs have filed a criminal complaint with Paris prosecutors against TotalEnergies, accusing the French major of negligence and indirect manslaughter during the March 2021 attack on Palma by Islamist insurgents.

Recent wide-ranging diplomatic efforts have been directed at trying to set up Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs) with developing countries. But it is still far from certain which countries (if any) will sign up, and what commitments wealthy nations can make to ensure success.

Arguments are intensifying over climate justice, the very meaning of climate finance, the role of gas as a transition fuel and – most of all – money. The combination of which means a ‘just energy transition’ that enables African nations to meet economic development targets seems a long way off.