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The New York-based International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) constituted a tribunal in March to hear the arbitration claim brought by Maersk Olie Algeriet against the Peoples’ Democratic Republic of Algeria.

Greenpeace activists gatecrashed the annual Oil & Money Conference dinner at London’s Grosvenor Hotel on 8 October to protest at IOCs’ role in climate change. The activists unfurled a banner reading “BP and Shell Climate Criminals” at the event, hosted by Energy Intelligence, where the Energy Executive of the Year award was due to pass from BP’s outgoing chief executive Bob Dudley, who is due to step down next year, to Royal Dutch Shell’s Ben van Beurden.

There is a growing international effort to revitalise the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) as a key element in getting cross-border projects with a big regional impact off the ground. The World Bank is preparing a project to facilitate priority energy projects in the SAPP region. And the US Power Africa initiative – which is gaining momentum across the continent – has also made building up regional pools a priority. It is putting transaction advisers – embedded specialist consultants – into the SAPP, East African Power Pool (EAPP) and West African Power Pool (WAPP).

Algeria’s long-awaited hydrocarbons law revisions were finally approved by parliament on 21 January, five months after the law was adopted by the government and Council of Ministers. Some international oil executives gave them a cautious welcome, while others said the new terms were too little too late. The revised text was passed by an overwhelming majority of deputies, who voted to amend 58 articles and introduce nine new ones to Law 05-07.

A new blockade of Marsa al-Harigah port in eastern Libya by an armed group that has not been involved in previous disruptions has prevented tankers from loading crude and caused a sharp drop in exports, which had previously been running at about 360,000 b/d. The protesters, from a faction of the Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG), are seeking payment of five months’ back wages rather than any major political concessions. But the action shows how easily production and exports can still be disrupted by relatively small groups.

Has a new trend of co-operation replaced confrontation in the management of maritime borders in north-west Africa? Morocco and Spain are synchronising controversial exploration around the popular holiday destination of the Canary Islands, separating their interests by a ‘courtesy corridor’ inside which neither country can operate. Libya and Malta have also decided to jointly explore the disputed area of the Medina Bank. The Canaries archipelago could contain up to 1.4bn bbls of oil in fields capable of producing up to 140,000 b/d. The islands’ President Paulino Rivero has previously criticised Spanish central government plans to explore near Lanzarote and Fuerteventura as incompatible with tourism on the islands.

African Energy’s Atlas 2010 charts patterns of activity in key sectors of the continent’s energy industry in maps and analysis that give an overview of recent developments and look ahead to trends in 2010 and beyond. The project has been led by cartographer David Burles, news editor Thalia Griffiths and publishing director Nick Carn

On 20 March, Noureddine Bouterfa announced that he had dismissed Sonatrach chairman and chief executive (PDG) Amine Mazouzi following a meeting of the company’s board. In his place he appointed Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour, the former PDG of Brown & Root Condor (BRC) who almost exactly a decade ago was being held under court supervision pending further inquiries into a major corruption scandal at BRC, then a joint venture between Sonatrach and Halliburton.

Following the end of its civil war, Angola has become an increasingly assertive regional player, reflected in a number of security deals – projecting the powerful Forças Armadas Angolanas (FAA) beyond Angola’s borders, notably in Brazzaville and Kinshasa – and in its determination to support Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe.

Speaking in Cape Town at the end of June, US President Barack Obama unveiled a new multi-billion dollar power initiative, Power Africa, aimed at doubling sub-Saharan access rates, boosting generation capacity by 10,000MW and connecting more than 20m households and businesses to the grid over the next five years. Under the scheme, the US government will provide $7bn of financial support, while a major private sector investment drive will pump an additional $9bn of investment into African power projects.

The PDP is no longer all-powerful, but President Goodluck Jonathan has a mandate for change that should accelerate the pace of projects and the passing of modernising legislation – provided he and his new government are capable of implementing their policies, write Kevin Godier, Jon Marks and David Slater

The success of the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) in driving the Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF, formerly known as the Libyan National Army) out of a strategic airbase west of the capital has opened up a new phase in the civil war. Geopolitically, the winners are Turkey, the GNA’s main international sponsor, and Russia, which is overtaking the United Arab Emirates as the most influential but also a more pragmatic backer of the diminished warlord Khalifa Haftar.

London has enjoyed close security co-operation with Algiers and Tripoli for some time, but the relationship is now more overt and ministerial attention more focused. In mid-November, minister for the Middle East and North Africa Alastair Burt – who civil servants say is genuinely enthusiastic about understanding North Africa – addressed a conference at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) on Europe’s relationship with North Africa.

The government is planning to revise the country’s oil law, with special emphasis on gas and pipeline regulations and especially cross-border provisions, vital for a landlocked state.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Nigeria’s Oranto Petroleum signed an exploration and production-sharing agreement (EPSA) for Block B3 in Juba on 6 March and said exploration work would start immediately. Oranto will be the technical operator and 90% shareholder of the block, with state oil company Nile Petroleum (Nilepet) holding a 10% stake.The 25,150km2 Block B3 has been open for investment for almost three years after France’s Total relinquished its interest in the block created in 2012 when the ministry divided the 118,000km2 Block B into three sections.