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Energy investor American Capital Energy & Infrastructure (ACEI) has announced it will invest $130m in Azura Power Holdings Ltd, which is developing the 450MW Azura-Edo open-cycle gas turbine power plant near Benin City in Edo State. The product of an April fundraising, the capital will be used to develop the first and second stages of the project. Azura-Edo is the flagship project in the Nigerian government’s power sector reform programme, which aims to end years of power shortages through the privatisation of state-owned power companies, ultimately aiming to boost generation capacity to 20,000MW, a target which would require capital injection of $3.5bn per year.

The National Agency of Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels (ANPG) has announced three block awards in the deep-water Namibe Basin from its 2019 bid round. ANPG said Sonangol was awarded 35% in Block 27, with the other 65% remaining open for negotiation by other interested companies. Eni was awarded operatorship of Block 28 with a 60% interest, alongside Sonangol with 20%, leaving 20% open for negotiations. Block 29 was awarded to Total as operator with 46%, alongside Equinor (24.5%), Sonangol (20%) and BP (9.5%).

The John Agyekum Kufuor floating production, storage and offloading vessel to be used for Eni’s Sankofa oil and gas development has arrived offshore Ghana, according to the Graphic Online news website. The FPSO is undergoing mooring operations at the Offshore Cape Three Points Block in the Tano Basin. The vessel will handle oil production from the Sankofa and Gye Nyame fields 60km off the coast.

The Federal Government of Nigeria’s new 100-page National Gas Policy (NGP) sets targets for policy reforms and improvements, starting in the upstream with policies to develop gas resources. The NGP aims to encourage exploration and development of new gas supply sources from inland and offshore basins, and to develop portfolio management methodologies to prioritise low-cost gas development. New reserves would then feed a restructured gas supply industry, whose future shape is outlined in the NGP.

Victoria Oil & Gas (VOG) plans exploration drilling next year to supply a planned expansion of its Logbaba gas processing plant in Douala. The company appointed a new management team in 2013 after significant cost overruns and has been focusing on transforming itself from an exploration and production company to an integrated utility company. A key milestone was a take-or-pay contract signed with power utility Eneo in December 2014 to supply the 20MW Bassa and 30MW Logbaba power stations.

BG has made a new gas discovery on Block 1 with the Taachui-1 well and Taachui-1 ST1 sidetrack, drilled by the Deepsea Metro I drillship close to the western boundary the block. The well was sidetracked for operational reasons and reached a total depth of 4,215 metres. Partner Ophir Energy said the well encountered gas in a single 289-metre column within the targeted Cretaceous reservoir interval. Reservoir properties are in line with those at Mzia, the other Cretaceous-aged discovery on Block 1.

President Mohammadu Buhari officially flagged off the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) gas pipeline project on 30 June, marking the start of construction for Nigeria’s largest gas pipeline development. The $2.8bn, 614km pipeline scheme will allow the injection of 2.2bcf/d of gas into the domestic power sector once two years of construction works are completed. Pointing to shifting global alignments, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) aims to finalise Chinese state-backed loans for the AKK project in August.

Circle Oil has announced a gas discovery with the KSR-12 well on the Sebou permit. The well is the third in a six-well programme on the onshore Rharb Basin permit in northern Morocco, and follows two earlier discoveries. Broker Investec described it in a research note as “the best result to date”.The well found a better-than-expected 20.5 metres of net pay in the Main Hoot interval and one metre in the Upper Hoot. In testing, the Main Hoot sands flowed at a sustained rate of 8.09mcf/d over eight hours with no decrease in wellhead pressure.

Victoria Oil & Gas (VOG) has signed a letter of intent with operator New Age (African Global Energy) to buy gas from the long-stranded Etinde field. The project would involve building 60km of new pipeline from Limbe to Douala, opening up opportunities for gas supply along the route. Under the terms of the agreement, VOG and New Age will seek to conclude a 20-year gas supply agreement (GSA) to supply 25-30mcf/d of processed gas to VOG subsidiary Gaz du Cameroun (GDC) at Limbe.

The partners on Block CI-27 have pre-empted Gasol’s planned purchase of Energie de Côte d’Ivoire and its 12% stake in the block (AE 269/15). The AIM-listed company said the seller, GDF Suez E&P International, had informed it that the existing partners had exercised their pre-emption rights and the acquisition could not proceed. The CI-27 fields produce about 137mcf/d of gas and 1,000 b/d of liquids. The gas is piped to Abidjan for sale to power producers under long-term contracts, and production from CI-27 accounted for more than 65% of Côte d’Ivoire’s gas production in 2012.

Ghana has signed a heads of agreement with Equatorial Guinea for the supply of 150-200mcf/d of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as part of measures being put in place by the government of President Nana Akufo-Addo to guarantee the country’s energy security.The agreement was signed by Ghana’s energy minister, Boakye Agyarko, and Equatorial Guinea’s minister of mines, industry, and energy, Gabriel Mbaga Obiang Lima, during a visit to Malabo by Akufo-Addo.

BP on 19 December announced a $916m farm-in agreement with Kosmos Energy to develop the Tortue gas project offshore Mauritania and Senegal. BP will take over the operatorship and a 62% working interest in Kosmos’ licences covering blocks C6, C8, C12 and C13 offshore Mauritania, as well as an effective 32.49% working interest in the licences covering the Saint Louis Offshore Profond and Cayar Offshore Profond blocks offshore Senegal. Kosmos will maintain 28% and 32.51% in the licences offshore Mauritania and Senegal respectively, and will continue as exploration operator.

Symbion Power Tanzania Ltd, which is in dispute with Tanzania Electric Supply Company (Tanesco) over the 112MW Ubungo gas power plant, has notified the Tanzanian government that, if no settlement can be agreed by 10 May 2018, arbitration proceedings will begin at the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), African Energy has learned. The company has already begun an arbitration case at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Paris, claiming $562.41m in lost capacity payments, interest, and future payments over the course of a 15-year power purchase agreement.

Kuwait Energy and Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation have commissioned a gas plant at the Abu Sennan concession in the Western Desert. The plant aims to optimise utilisation of the hydrocarbons on the block. “The associated gas is now captured and processed for domestic utilization, while simultaneously removing a bottleneck in oil production resulting in an increase in total field throughput,” the company said. Kuwait Energy holds a 50% revenue interest and is the operator in the Abu Sennan development lease, while Dover Investments holds 28% and Beach Energy holds 22%.

SDX Energy has won an extension of the Lalla Mimouna Nord and Sud permits in the Rharb Basin to March 2018, with two exploration wells planned for H2 2017. At Sebou, various extensions for four producing concessions and for the Sebou exploration permit have been granted over the next eight years, with five wells planned this year that are close to pipeline infrastructure and can be put on production quickly if successful.