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President Macky Sall looked at his confident best on 12 June as he hosted a day of dialogue over the future shape of the oil and gas industry and the expected revenue boost to the Senegalese economy. The event sought to bring together politicians, business and civil society, but significant elements of the opposition boycotted the event in Dakar’s new conference centre. Sall’s opponents demand that the government should publish all the natural resources contracts it has signed to date.

The past four years have been a period of intense frustration for National Oil Corporation (NOC) and its international partners as persistent violence and political mayhem have cut oil production to one-quarter of the 1.6m b/d maximum and made it impossible to implement exploration and development plans. NOC’s inability to make progress on a practical level has not stopped it from working up new investment schemes, which it has presented to international oil companies (IOCs) in increasing detail over the past several years.

New Era newspaper described black economic empowerment (BEE) entrepreneur Knowledge Katti as “one of the fastest growing [exclusive prospecting licence] EPL millionaires in the country”. Born in 1973 and raised by his grandmother in the Walvis Bay township of Kuisebmond, Katti came to international attention in 2008 when Canada’s Universal Power Corporation (UPC) announced

A bilateral energy agreement signed by presidents Ian Khama and Jacob Zuma on 31 August has been greeted with a mixed reaction. The agreement is intended to lead to the export of coal from Botswana to South Africa.

Energy and mines minister Youcef Yousfi led a high-level delegation of officials to London on 15 April, including senior executives from Sonatrach, Sonelgaz and regulator Agence Nationale pour la Valorisation des Ressources en Hydrocarbures (Alnaft). Yousfi’s visit was arranged as part of a UK government initiative to improve economic ties with Algeria. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has named the minister as his economic representative to the UK in response to Prime Minister David Cameron’s appointment of Lord Risby as the UK’s trade envoy to Algeria. Cameron has named envoys for each of the North African states.

Emergency plans were pushed through in August to help to alleviate the worst of Tanzania’s power rationing.  But there are understandable concerns about cost and corruption, and fears that larger projects will not come to fruition any time soon, writes Adrian J Browne.

Private equity has a growing role to play in developing African infrastructure and building up companies, but the going can be tough for fund managers looking to tap conventional investors who feel comfortable in North America, Europe and many Asian markets

More heads could roll following the crisis at Sonatrach as rival factions battle it out. Following the arrests that have savaged state hydrocarbons company Sonatrach’s senior management team, energy and mines minister Chakib Khelil stands at the centre of the ‘perfect storm’ that has engulfed Algerian politics (AE 179/1).

Western governments are determined to interdict the Indian-flagged tanker containing a cargo of Libya crude sold to an Emirati buyer by the Cyrenaica-based parallel management of National Oil Corporation (NOC). On 27 April, the vessel was located in waters south-east of Malta, having been turned back by the authorities in Valletta the previous day. Failure to prevent it from unloading the cargo and completing the transaction in defiance of a United Nations Security Council resolution banning unauthorised crude exports would destroy the credibility of the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA).

Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (Zera) confirmed in early June that the beleaguered Zimbabwe Electricity Distribution Company (ZETDC) has applied for a tariff review for 2017, citing increases in the cost of power production. Zera acting chief executive Misheck Siyakatshana said a decision on the tariff review would have to wait until an audit of the utility’s operations and structures by Deloitte & Touche is completed. ZETDC is the transmission and distribution subsidiary of Zesa Holdings.

The influential central committee of the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) party has called on the Ministry of Energy to resolve an impasse over talks to extend an agreement that allows Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) to buy power in bulk from Zesco for resale to mining companies.“The central committee (of the PF) directed the Ministry of Energy to amicably resolve the impasse between the two institutions. As you might be aware, CEC is single bulk buyer of power from Zesco.

In the midst of a financial crisis that threatens its very existence, the European Union is focusing on another critical issue for long-term survival, that of securing its energy future. Algeria could be key to this process, but formal agreement remains elusive

Plans for a joint venture between leading Cairo-based private equity company Citadel Capital and Qatar Islamic Bank-backed investment company QInvest to build regasification facilities and import gas for Egypt’s domestic market have caused a degree of puzzlement in the industry. A 22 November statement from Citadel does not explain where the gas will come from or how the infrastructure and gas will be paid for. It says Citadel, QInvest and a group of Qatari investors will form a joint venture to “construct and own the facilities required to position a floating LNG storage and regasification unit (FSRU) at a location in Egypt to deliver natural gas to high-volume end-users”.

The government has passed legislation aimed at improving regulation and governance in the oil and gas sector, though the speed with which it was processed has been criticised by opposition MPs and civil society groups. The Petroleum Act was passed on 5 July, followed by the Oil & Gas Revenue Management Act and the Tanzania Extractive Industry (Transparency & Accountability) Act the following day. Opposition parties accused the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party of pushing through the legislation without giving parliament time to adequately consider its contents.

Of all the assorted regional infrastructure projects jostling for supremacy in East Africa, the growing credibility of the Lamu Corridor project raises the possibility of a new East African power axis of Kenya and an emergent Ethiopia.