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On 21 August, the leader of the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) Presidency Council Fayez Al-Sarraj and eastern-based House of Representatives president Aguila Saleh each announced their own ceasefire. Saleh suggested that a new presidency council could be temporarily established in the demilitarised city of Sirte.

The management of National Oil Corporation (NOC) based in the eastern Libyan town of Al-Bayda has suspended its attempts to sell oil independently from the established NOC management in Tripoli since the United Nations (UN)-backed Presidency Council led by Faiz Serraj moved to the capital. But the legitimacy of what the UN and its backers say is now the recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) is far from established. The dominant power brokers in Cyrenaica are still negotiating the terms of their endorsement of the new administration. Without their support it will be constitutionally weak, and failure to agree will start a new conflict over control of Sirte Basin oil infrastructure.

One region seems above all others to stubbornly buck the positive political and economic trends recorded over two decades by African Energy: it comprises the six Communauté Economique et Monétaire de l’Afrique Centrale (Cemac) countries and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Events in the last month, including a failed coup in Gabon and contested elections in DRC, underline Central Africa’s chronic crisis of leadership. Such political behaviours are increasingly seen as an anachronism in a world structured by social media, as well as by older social bonds and traditional patterns of coercion by elites.

Algeria’s announcements that it was severing diplomatic ties with Rabat and won’t renew the GME gas supply agreement puts into question energy flows into Morocco and southern Europe, while posing questions about stability in the region. Even by the standards of decades of antipathy between the Maghreb’s major powers, recent developments should give all parties cause for concern, writes Jon Marks

Kenya has long been one of the most open markets in sub-Saharan Africa, but private investors in the country’s power sector are not having an easy ride. Power tariffs are being pushed downwards, with the most recent solar power purchase agreements (PPAs), signed earlier this year, reaching $0.075/kWh, despite government support for payments from the utilities it controls being steadily diluted. Companies frequently find policymaking opaque and must contend with unexpected rule changes and the endless renegotiation of documentation.

South Africa’s mineral resources and energy minister Gwede Mantashe remains an unapologetic advocate for the continued use of coal, arguing that its importance for the economy and employment cannot be ignored. The DMRE arranged a colloquium with coal industry leaders on 1 February for Mantashe to deliver a call to arms.

Less than a year from elections, numerous candidates are eyeing up the prize of taking over from President Muhammadu Buhari. 

President Abdelmajid Tebboune has created a new version of the Conseil National de l’Energie (CNE), a body first created in 1995 to bring together senior military/security, energy and other officials to advise the head of state on critical sector issues.

Reports that both the government of South Sudan and nominal opposition leader Riek Machar have been in talks with Khartoum over securing control of South Sudan’s oilfields have roused fears that the already bloody fight could escalate further. Speaking at Juba airport on 6 January at the conclusion of a visit by Sudan’s President Omar Al-Bashir, Sudan’s foreign minister Ali Ahmed Karti told reporters that the two countries were “in consultations” over a proposal from the South Sudanese government for the deployment of a “mixed force to protect oilfields in South Sudan”.

Tullow Ghana has given Technip, in consortium with Subsea7, two contracts for the Tweneboa-Enyenra-Ntomme (Ten) development. The contracts have a combined value of $1.23bn, with a Technip share of about $730m. Technip’s scope of work includes the engineering, fabrication and installation of nine flexible risers, three flexible flowlines and 12 flexible spools, totalling 48km; the engineering, fabrication and installation of 33km of water injection and gas injection rigid flowlines; installation of about 63km of static and dynamic umbilicals; engineering, prefabrication, final assembly and installation of ten rigid jumpers; and delivery of a further six prefabricated rigid jumpers.


As the standoff with Khartoum continues, South Sudan is looking at alternatives for its oil. Three refinery projects are in discussion and an export pipeline to Kenya seems increasingly likely, writes Richard Nield

A report prepared by the Petroleum Revenue Special Taskforce was leaked to the press in late October, claiming that $29bn has been swallowed by a natural gas price-fixing scam – allegedly involving Total, Eni, Royal Dutch Shell and state officials – while $6bn/yr was said to go missing annually due to oil theft. Oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke declined to comment on the report.

In office for just over a year, the Jubilee Alliance government led by Kenyatta and deputy president William Ruto has had a difficult start to its tenure. As well as the trials at the International Criminal Court and accusations of a lack of preparedness in the wake of September’s terrorist strike on the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi, commentators speak of a spike in corruption since the two assumed office, and scandals certainly seem to have permeated the higher tiers of government.

Soma Oil & Gas executive director for Africa Hassan Khaire has been named as prime minister in the government of new Somali president Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed. Soma said Khaire had resigned from the board and relinquished all his shares in the company. Khaire, 46, had worked with Soma since the company was founded in 2013, and before that as director for the Norwegian Refugee Council for Somalia and East Africa, having come to Norway in the late 1980s as a refugee.

It all seems like business as usual. Australian Securities Exchange and Alternative Investment Market-listed Range Resources has announced a new financial agreement with its joint venture partner Canada-based Africa Oil Corporation (AOC), for a second exploration well due to be spudded by September. This will be included as part of AOC’s exploration commitments,which oblige it to spend $22.5m in Dharoor and Nugaal before Range reverts to a contributing basis. A Range company report says AOC has satisfied its commitments with regard to Dharoor, but still has around $15m to pay on Nugaal.