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The government has received 21 bids for 14 of the 27 blocks offered in its licensing round, which closed in September, and plans to announce awards in Malabo on 26 November. Speaking during a country presentation at Africa Oil Week on 7 November, energy and mines minister Gabriel Mbaga Obiang Lima said bids for EG-27, EG-23, EG-18, EG-09, EG-03, EG-04 and EG-29 had been fully evaluated and would be signed by the end of November while the rest would need more time.

Sound Energy has changed its plans for the Tendrara gas discovery and now plans a fast-track early production project, after plans to sell down a stake in the licence stalled. Sound said it now planned to prioritise early cash flows from the concession from a micro LNG scheme for the TE-5 Horst field with first gas planned for 2021. The micro LNG scheme will be pursued alongside the full field development plan, centred around a 120km pipeline development.

US developer ContourGlobal is hoping for first gas by the end of the month at the trailblazing KivuWatt methane gas power project on Lake Kivu. The facility aims to produce up to 100MW from four units extracting methane dissolved in the deep water of Lake Kivu, reducing the risk of a potentially catastrophic release of the gas (AE 296/1). The barge-mounted gas-collecting unit for the first 25MW phase has been moored in position on the lake, and riser pipes are being connected to the separators. The pipes and separator will then be lowered under the barge and begin extracting gas, which will initially be flared until all the equipment is commissioned and gas can be piped to the onshore power plant at Kibuye.

The governments of Equatorial Guinea (EG) and Cameroon signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on 10 July paving the way for joint development of Noble Energy’s Yolanda discovery in EG Block I and Yoyo discovery offshore Cameroon. The company told African Energy the MoU stated that the two discoveries were in a contiguous reservoir that would be jointly developed as the Yoyo-Yolanda condensate gas field and operated by Noble Energy.“The MoU signifies a commitment from both countries to work together to develop the Yoyo-Yolanda condensate gas field,” Noble said.

Finland’s Wärtsilä announced on 29 July that it will supply two 34SG engines with combined capacity of 19MW to the Borg El Arab gas power plant, owned and operated by Kahraba, part of Egypt Kuwait Holding, one of the largest private electricity service providers in Egypt. The order was placed in June. The existing plant comprises three Wärtsilä 34SG engines with combined capacity of around 9MW. The new equipment will be delivered to the site in January 2020, with operations expected towards the end of the year.

Major IOCs have underlined their business-as-usual approach in Algeria as both Italy’s Edison and France’s Engie announced on 19 November that they were renewing their strategically important long-term gas contracts. They join Italy’s Enel and Eni, Portugal’s Galp Energia, Turkey’s Botas Petroleum Pipeline Corporation and Spain’s Naturgy Energy Group (formerly Gas Natural Fenosa) in agreeing new long-term sales deals.This is a major imperative for Algiers, which depends on natural gas sales – which totalled 51.4bcm in 2018, when two-thirds went to Italy and Spain – for a large proportion of its total export revenues.

Azonto Petroleum has agreed to sell its 35% stake in Vioco Petroleum to joint-venture partner Vitol, which holds the other 65 percent. Faced with delays and cost increases to the planned Gazelle gas field development, Azonto said it had concluded that a sale was the best way to realise value from its stake in Block CI-202. It said selling up now saved it from committing to a work programme that it could not finance, and that it could potentially consider alternative asset acquisitions.

Ophir Energy said on 9 July that it has awarded upstream front-end engineering and design (FEED) contracts for the Fortuna floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) project in Block R to two contractor consortia. The company says it is considering a second FLNG vessel on the development, while still looking to bring in a farm-in partner before its planned final investment decision (FID) in mid-2016.The upstream FEED contract, awarded to McDermott Marine Construction Ltd with GE Oil & Gas UK Ltd, and Subsea 7 with Aker Solutions, will be a competitive process, with the scope of work including subsea development design.

By the end of 2018, natural gas and dual fuel plants using gas will have increased from 40% of installed capacity in 2010 to nearly 48%, according to the new African Energy Data Book. The increase in gas usage has often been at the expense of coal plants, which have decreased as a proportion of total generation from 29% to 20% since 2010, although coal capacity has grown by 13% over the same period. Use of liquid fuels has also decreased.There is a clear need and appetite for gas-fired power in Africa.

Senior officials and some notable international investors are optimistic that Egypt’s upstream sector is back on track, but this does not mean that some casualties have not been left by the wayside. The announcement of a new licensing round and the prospect of others later this year is the latest indication of the opportunities now on offer. Field developments are under way on and offshore, but Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) has not paid back arrears owed to international oil companies (IOCs) as quickly as it said it would, and a number of IOCs have suffered because of this.

Sudan still has hopes of exploiting its gas reserves, put at 3tcf, but with demand for electricity and industrial feedstock rising, President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir on 30 November said the government planned a pipeline from Port Sudan to Khartoum to facilitate gas imports. Reports suggested that Sudan’s increasingly friendly ties with Qatar could open the way for liquefied natural gas imports, which were discussed during a November visit to Doha by defence minister Abdelrahim Mohammed Hussein. After a meeting with Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, Hussein told reporters he had signed an “agreement to export gas from Qatar to Sudan for electricity production”, starting at the beginning of 2015.

BP has given Golar LNG Limited a limited notice to proceed for the provision of a floating liquefaction vessel to support the development of Phase 1 of the Greater Tortue/Ahmeyim field as the project closes in on an imminent final investment decision (FID). This follows a preliminary agreement and heads of terms for a charter agreement with BP announced by Golar in April. FID on the development is planned around year-end or early in 2019, once the governments have granted an exclusive exploitation authorisation.

France’s Engie has shelved plans for a liquefied natural gas export plant on the southern coast at Lolabé. Engie, formerly GDF Suez, had been developing the 3.5m tonne LNG project in partnership with Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SNH) since 2008 and the two companies completed front-end engineering design for the scheme in early 2016. Engie said the scheme had been placed on hold due to unfavourable market conditions. Late last year, SNH and Perenco announced a final investment decision for an eight-year floating LNG project to sell gas to Russia’s Gazprom.

Royal Dutch Shell has signed a preliminary agreement to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the Ghana 1000 gas-to-power project. A joint statement said project partners General Electric, Endeavor Energy, Eranove and Sage Petroleum had agreed a supply term sheet with Shell and entered into exclusive sale and purchase agreement negotiations for a long-term supply agreement. Ghana 1000 is an integrated gas-to-power project that will consist of 1,300MW to be delivered in two phases, a floating storage and regasification unit and related infrastructure.

The National Agency for Oil, Gas and Biofuels (ANPG) has released the data package for its 2020 licensing round covering onshore blocks in the Lower Congo and Kwanza basins. Companies can express interest via the ANPG website, www.anpg.co.ao.A formal launch had been planned for the end of May but ANPG said on 28 May that “some adjustments” were necessary due to the coronavirus pandemic, though the agency said it wanted to keep to its previously announced bidding schedules.