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Keen to support ‘stability’ in Egypt, Saudi Arabia has speeded up disbursement of a $2.25bn package announced a year ago following the ousting of president Hosni Mubarak.

With a new transitional government in place, talks are making progress with the state Office des Mines Nationales et des Industries Stratégiques (Omnis) on a resumption of exploration work in Sterling Energy’s offshore acreage, according to the AIM-listed company’s exploration director Philip Frank.

A new company specialising in acreage in aspiring independent states has teamed up with a firm owned by a Puntland presidential candidate to explore a block offshore Somalia, writes William Macpherson. Belize-registered Kilimanjaro Capital has announced a farm-in agreement with Amsas Consulting, owned by Puntland 2014 presidential election candidate Dr Ali Abdullahi, for the Amsas-Coriole-Afgoye Block, which is presently under force majeure. Kilimanjaro will obtain a 5% non-working interest in the block,

A high-profile meeting at the Ras Lanuf oil terminal between United Nations Support Mission in Libya (Unsmil) chief Martin Kobler and central region Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG) commander Ibrahim Al-Jathran on 21 July was intended to herald a breakthrough deal that would result in oil exports restarting imminently. A payoff for Jathran was approved by the UN, the Presidency Council and, after some protest, by National Oil Corporation (NOC). However, both Unsmil and the council appear to have underestimated both the complexity of Libya’s oil industry and the competing interests in its oil crescent.

Energy minister Davis Chirchir has stepped down while anti-corruption officials investigate allegations against him. The self-imposed suspension followed a 26 March speech by President Uhuru Kenyatta, who asked officials named in an Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) probe to step down. On 9 April, Chirchir was questioned by the EACC. He has denied any wrongdoing. The EACC alleges that Chirchir used his influence to push for China’s Sinopec to be awarded a Sh43bn ($462m) contract by the Kenya Pipeline Company last year ahead of Lebanese company Zakheem International.

Egypt could have a future as a Mediterranean gas exporter. Rising debts owed by Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) and other post-revolution problems weigh on international oil companies, but IOCs and industry analysts are optimistic about the prospects for further hydrocarbons discoveries in the Nile Delta, Western Desert and other regions, reflected in the latest EGPC licensing round bidding.

Symbion Power has told African Energy an agreement to resolve its long-running dispute with the government and Tanzania Electric Supply Company (Tanesco) is likely in the coming months. The dispute is the subject of two arbitration cases, one at the World Bank Group’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and another at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

A month after inviting the Spanish and Chinese consortia competing to build the 4,800MW Inga 3 hydropower dam on the Congo River to merge their offers into a single bid, the head of the Agency for the Development and Promotion of Grand Inga (ADPI), Bruno Kapandji Kalala, has said the project’s start date has been postponed by four years to 2024 or 2025. “We are working for this timing (in 2024 or 2025) now that the potential developer has been identified,” he told Reuters on 3 July.

New president Evariste Ndayishimiye, a former militia fighter and army general, was sworn in on 18 June, ten days after the death of Pierre Nkurunziza. The succession had created some uncertainty, as according to the constitution, Pascal Nyabenda, speaker of the National Assembly, should have taken over on the death of the president, but Ndayishimiye was already president elect, having won elections in May, and had been due to be sworn in in August. Following a ruling by the Constitutional Court, Ndayishimiye’s inauguration was brought forward.

A combination of drought, national utility Zesco’s balance sheet, and an alarming bill for electricity sector subsidies has persuaded the Zambian government to push ahead with a radical overhaul of its power sector. Pressure from drought is easing gradually. Energy minister David Mabumba told the National Assembly on 28 March that generation from hydropower had improved, in particular at Kafue Gorge, where available capacity had increased from 630MW to 900MW, of an installed 990MW.

The great opportunities that tempted so many international players into Libya’s energy sector have not gone away.

The signs are not good for South Africa’s economy. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that GDP grew by only 1.9% in 2013, following a disappointing 2.5% in 2012, and growth of just 0.6% in Q1 2014 has many investors worried. The IMF does not expect the unemployment rate – which does not include the sizeable economically inactive population – to fall below 24% until 2018. A string of damaging strikes, most notably the five-month strike at the platinum mines, has contributed to an annualised fall in mining and quarrying output of nearly 25% in Q1 of this year.

A month after announcing a fourth oil discovery in the Lokichar Basin, Tullow Oil and Africa Oil Corporation have been forced to suspend exploration in the Turkana region for nearly two weeks following local protests over employment.
Tullow said on 28 October it had “temporarily suspended all operations as a precautionary measure in Block 10BB and Block 13T in northern Kenya. This decision follows demonstrations by local people regarding concerns around employment. The company said it was resuming work on 8 November following signing of a memorandum of understanding with the energy ministry laying out a plan for the companies and national and local authorities to work together to avoid future problems.


Shukri Ghanem – an academic who became one of Libya’s few genuine economic reformers, he spent most of the 1990s working as a petroleum economist at OPEC in Vienna, where he established a close connection with Saif Al-Islam Al-Qadhafi.

The Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), BP’s partner in its massive onshore and offshore exploration blocks, is experiencing a crisis of leadership as it struggles to deal with losses sustained during the latter years of Colonel Muammar Qadhafi’s rule. In mid-February, Prime Minister Ali Zeidan dismissed the sovereign wealth fund’s executive chairman Mohsen Derregia, replacing him with Central Bank of Libya deputy governor Ali Mohamed Salem Hibri.