Search results

Algeria and its energy industry are transfixed by drift and inertia as anti-corruption enquiries continue, energy minister Chakib Khelil is put under pressure and President Bouteflika’s intentions remain unclear

Oil and gas minister Abdulrahman Ben Yezza has reassured striking workers at Sirte Oil Company (SOC)’s Brega complex that the government will do what it takes to bring the security situation there under control.

Persistent blackouts, rising tensions in poorer neighbourhoods and disillusionment among the professional classes are adding to political pressures on President Wade and his family. A speedy breakthrough in installing new generation capacity and improved T&D would considerably ease tensions, writes Jon Marks in Dakar

While talking up its efforts to support the oil and gas industry through the current downturn with a two-year extension to all exploration contracts, the Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons has published a new ministerial order that limits to three years the period during which companies can employ expatriate workers. “The order follows years of successful capacity building and training within local companies and local labour in Equatorial Guinea, which has made available a well-trained pool of local talent,” a ministry statement said.

As the new regime in Tripoli establishes its authority, Libya urgently needs to restart oil production.  A potentially divisive mix of old and new faces is emerging to take charge of the sector, writes John Hamilton

Tanzania Electric Supply Company Ltd (Tanesco) has cancelled and then reissued three recently announced tenders for large-scale solar, wind and coal as Tanzania continues to bewilder investors. The tenders are part of government efforts to revive the power sector in time for elections in 2020 following a period of stagnation under the administration of President John Magufuli. Bids are now due by 7 December.Tanesco said the tenders had been cancelled due to “unavoidable circumstances”.

Nigeria’s female ministers have proved themselves a tough and often talented bunch, but new petroleum minister Diezani Allison-Madueke faces a difficult challenge to finalise the Petroleum Industry Bill, which her predecessor, the law’s key architect Rilwanu Lukman,

Over the past several years, power cuts have become a standard feature of Egyptian summers. This year, nation-wide blackouts started in mid-March, indicating the country may be heading towards one of the most difficult peak demand seasons ever. Interim prime minister Ibrahim Mahlab has demanded that Egyptian Electricity Holding Company accelerate the completion of an additional 2,400MW of generation capacity, to bring it on stream by June instead of August. The government has also returned to plans that it rejected last year to commission a temporary floating regasification unit to allow it to import liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Morocco’s readmission to the African Union in January 2017 was widely welcomed, ending a boycott called by the late King Hassan II in 1984 after the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) was admitted as a full member of the then Organisation of African Unity. Morocco sees its future security and prosperity in an energetic drive to build business, political and cultural relations across Africa and King Mohammed VI received a standing ovation when he addressed the 2017 African Union summit.

The jihadist organisations that have prospered in the ruins of the Libyan state since the overthrow of the dictator Colonel Muammar Qadhafi have started to fight among themselves, adding another level of complexity to an already fragmented political scene. A related North Africa-wide effort to unite more established Al-Qaeda elements against the insurgent Islamic State (IS) is being led by the notorious one-eyed Sahelian terrorist, kidnapper and smuggler, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who almost certainly escaped death despite being the target of a US Air Force raid on a farm outside Ajdabiya on 13 June.

President Paul Biya has not survived in power for over 37 years by showing great sensitivity to local or international criticism, let alone by accommodating outright opposition. Like other leaders and sympathetic opinion-formers across Central Africa and beyond, he has rationalised authoritarian tendencies and crony relations by insisting on his regime’s essential role in ensuring stability. While governance shortfalls may define the daily lives of Cameroon’s multi-ethnic population, a nation created first by German colonisation and then by division between the British and French empires has traditionally avoided identity-based conflict.

The Tanzanian government has unveiled a new gas policy focused on prioritising the domestic market rather than the large-scale exports favoured by IOCs, writes Hugh Boylan.

The governments of Sudan and South Sudan have agreed to renegotiate the terms under which Juba exports its oil, according to officials from the two countries. Transit fees of almost $25/bbl, combined with the drop in the global oil price and the discount at which Dar Blend crude trades, meant that South Sudan faced selling its oil at a loss. Output dropped sharply, heralding a possible shutdown and requiring an urgent renegotiation of transit terms.

President Ali Bongo Ondimba has been energetically promoting his country’s investment profile across the world, and Gabon in the 1990s took a continental lead in promoting the concessioning of public services, but the going can be tough for some investors and concession contracts in particular are coming under pressure. According to a Gabon analyst, “utility companies are operating in a particularly fraught environment”.

With the threat of another pipeline shutdown averted, South Sudan’s oil production is expected to increase from about 180,000 b/d to 200,000 b/d in the coming weeks, and to at least 250,000 b/d by year-end, according to oil industry sources in Juba. During a one-day summit in Khartoum on 3 September with South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir, Sudanese leader Omar Hassan Al-Bashir agreed to reverse his decision, announced on 9 June, to stop receiving, processing and transporting crude from South Sudan within 60 days. Under pressure from oil companies and foreign governments, Bashir had already twice delayed the anticipated shutdown, originally scheduled for 7 August, to 22 August and then to 6 September.