Search results

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) was hit hard by the pandemic but there are indications that the region will recover some of the lost ground in 2021. Live Data has already confirmed more than 1.8GW of new capacity has come online this year, although 900MW of this was in South Africa.

Lekoil Nigeria is one of several Lekoil subsidiaries that also include Lekgas, Lekoil Exploration and Production, Lekoil Management Corporation, Lekoil Ltd and Lekoil 310. The Lagos-based arm is official equity holder for its Nigerian assets, as ‘technical operator’ in OPLs 310 and 325.

Algeria has long been a major gas flarer but time may be running out for the practice as the EU moves to enforce its carbon border adjustment mechanism, writes Ajay Ubhi. Algeria’s consistently high level of gas flaring could start to threaten its gas export market to the Europe once the European Union’s carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) comes into force.

French official private sector support agency Proparco and the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF) have closed a €178m ($212m) funding package for the Biovea project, which they describe as Africa’s first biomass power plant with grid injection.

Six independent power producers (IPPs) selected in a tender last year have been asked to extend their bids once again, this time to October. They had previously been asked to extend them to the end of June. The IPPs had bid prices of only $0.034-38/kWh for wind and solar PV projects with combined capacity of 350MW.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will make its long-awaited decision next year on whether to extend its operations into sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). 

Zambia’s incoming administration is well aware of the urgent need to address the dire financial position of the vertically integrated state utility Zesco. The restructuring of Zesco to improve the utility’s operations, and increase its autonomy and efficiency to ensure long-term financial sustainability was high on the United Party for National Development (UPND)’s campaign agenda.

Another, unrelated fuel scandal has continued to unfold in the Malawian energy industry, following up the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) investigation, opened in March 2020, into what has come to be known as ‘Dieselgate’, the theft of fuel from National Oil Company of Malawi (Nocma) meant for the ‘emergency’ diesel plants that have been operational in Malawi since 2018.

African nations need to spend $15.7bn to curb refinery emissions and meet climate-change targets, according to the African Refiners and Distributors Association (Arda). It said governments should focus on reducing sulphur levels in petroleum products because the consumption of fossil fuels on the continent will rise quickly in the coming decades, even as the supply of clean energy expands.

The government is reviewing the $6bn infrastructure-for-minerals deal concluded by then President Joseph Kabila Kabange and Chinese investors, in the context of a broader examination of mining contracts, finance minister Nicolas Kazadi told Reuters on 27 August.

Southern African governments have been slow to recognise the potential of regional power pools to draw investment into their countries. Most have seen the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) through a resource nationalist lens...

A rarity until a few years ago, battery and renewable power plants have more recently outcompeted fossil fuel projects without subsidy in several African markets. The AIX: Financing Battery Storage meeting heard about the extent Bess projects are making headway, despite financiers’ reservations.

TotalEnergies’ latest Strategy and Outlook paper, Building a sustainable multi-energy company, offers a heavily-illustrated, if light-on-detail, glimpse of how the corporate giants formally known as ‘oil majors’ may change in the coming decade. The document, presented at a 28 September shareholders meeting, is strong on TotalEnergies’ plan for “reinvention”, from being a bad old oil major to one with a cleverly constructed – and often very valuable – sustainable energy strategy.

Plans for a radical restructuring of Morocco’s power and water sector is expected to be near the top of the agenda for incoming energy transition and sustainable development minister Leila Benali and new public works and water minister Nizar Baraka. The plans cover both state utility Office National de l’Electricité et de l’Eau Potable (ONEE) and the regional utilities (régies) and include the creation of 12 new regional companies to tackle chronic debt problems in the sector and allow public services to explore new project financing options.

Just over two months after he suspended parliament, and soon after he published legislative texts permitting himself to rule by decree, President Kaïs Saied on 29 September appointed a new government, led by Najla Bouden, a geologist with no experience in politics and law-making.