Search results

Tlou Energy has awarded two tenders for work on its gas and solar Lesedi power project. The local Zismo Engineering has won a contract for the construction of 100km of 66kV overhead transmission lines. South Africa’s OptiPower secured another tender for construction of substations at Lesedi and Serowe, where it will connect with the grid.

State utility Sonelgaz’s construction programme has been beleaguered by severe problems related to implementation, alongside strategic tensions surrounding its gas-fired programme and lack of progress on renewables procurement in Algeria.

SDX has started the first phase of its 2021 drilling campaign, which will comprise up to five wells over the year. The first phase will consist of three appraisal/development wells, which will target an estimated total of 1.3 bcf of P90/1.8 bcf of P50 gross unrisked prospective recoverable resources in its Gharb Basin acreage.

Wentworth Resources posted a record Q1 2021 performance with production of 84.74mcf/d gross, compared with an average of 63.60mcf/d in Q1 2020.

While Tanzania is moving ahead with its oil pipeline from Uganda, and could even revive IOCs plans to develop large-scale offshore gas deposits for export, it is cosying up to Kenya with an eye to selling more of its gas. Kenyan officials say the governments’ longstanding talks about gas sales could work – if the price is right.

Following the death in March of president John Pombe Magufuli it has been widely questioned whether his successor would accelerate moves to encourage international investment. There is growing industry optimism that there is substance in President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s call for the Ministry of Energy to speed up Royal Dutch Shell and the Equinor/ExxonMobil group’s long-planned deep offshore development.

The 56MW Kivu56 methane-to-power plant is expected to achieve commercial operations in March 2022, Shema Power Lake Kivu project director Tony de la Motte told African Energy on 4 May. The project – which has also been known as Cape Busororo Methane and Shema Power Lake Kivu Methane – will comprise four barges supplying methane to 14MW turbines. Preliminary work began in August 2018.

Pipeline Investments Company (Rompco) to a consortium of Reatile Group and private equity fund manager African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM). Pending he consortium will pay up to R5.145bn ($375m) for the stake, comprising an initial R4.145bn and a deferred payment of up to R1bn which is dependent on agreed milestones being achieved by 30 June 2024.

The United States’ Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has approved $217m in loan finance to Ceca SL Generation, the project company for the Western Area Power Generation Project (Wapgp). The plant – also known as Salone Power or Cecasl Power – is an 87MW combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) facility in the Kissy Dock area, 4km east from Freetown’s centre.

The government’s announcement of a sharp increase in the threshold at which power plants need a generation licence may be a tacit acknowledgement of the increasingly existential crises threatening Karpowership’s three risk mitigation independent power producer (IPP) procurement programme (RMIPPP) projects, in Coega (450MW), Richards Bay (450MW) and Saldanha (320MW).

There are signs of activity for the country’s hydrocarbons sectors, with Victoria Oil & Gas raising fresh finance to develop its onshore Matanda licence and other operators edging towards further developments offshore, writes James Gavin.

London AIM-listed Scirocco Energy and Aminex in mid-August reported that their Ruvuma joint venture – now led by ARA Petroleum Tanzania (APT), following a farm-out by Aminex – had received Ministry of Energy approval to extend its production-sharing agreement (PSA) for another two years from 15 August.

Fresh from a name change that has seen it morph from Seplat Petroleum to Seplat Energy – a reflection of the company’s efforts to diversify – the Lagos- and London-listed independent is doubling down on natural gas as it looks for growth over the next five years.

Miner Goviex Uranium chief executive Daniel Major told African Energy that work on the 20MW Madaouela Mine solar PV and diesel hybrid plant near Arlit, in the Agadez region, had been postponed.

Mombassa-based independent fuel retailer East African Gas Oil (Eagol) plans to increase the number of its outlets in Kenya from six to 15 over the coming three years, its chief executive Abdi Ali told the local Business Daily on 12 October.