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London- and Ghana-listed Tullow Oil announced better than expected H1 2022 results on 14 September, with 60,900 boe/d working interest production, of which its Jubilee and Tweneboa, Enyenra, Ntomme (Ten) fields in Ghana contributed 30,800 boe/d and 12,500 boe/d respectively.

Fresh criticism from the European Parliament of the controversial scheme to drill for oil in Lake Albert and export the crude to Tanzania via a 1,400km pipeline adds to pressures on the project’s shareholders. The reputational risk has made dozens of major banks and insurers distance themselves from the project, but Uganda and Tanzania remain adamant Eacop should go ahead, writes James Gavin.

Moves by the South African and Mozambican governments to take control of the Rompco pipeline showed the fundamental shift in Pretoria’s strategic view, as big beasts Eskom and Sasol look to decarbonise. There is significant potential for a regional gas economy – underlined by urgent action to end the jihadist insurgency in Cabo Delgado – but past politics and indecision is tempering optimism, writes Dan Marks

Global Alliance for People and Planet and the Norwegian government have pledged more funding to support the development of solar power in Sahel countries.

CWP Global’s 30GW Aman project is projected to cost about $40bn. It will be located on a desert site of approximately 8,500km2, comprising 18GW of wind and 12GW of solar, a water desalination plant and an installation to synthesise hydrogen and ammonia. When complete, there will be nearly 2,000 wind turbines spaced 3km apart, with a solar park covering 28,000ha of non-arable land. Construction will extend over an eight- to ten-year period. The power will be transmitted via medium- and high-tension lines to feed the electrolysers on the coast.

The military junta that deposed President Alpha Condé remains insistent that it’s taking a ‘business as usual’ approach as it starts discussions over the formation of a new government, but the outlook for Guinea’s political landscape, and the energy sector, remains up in the air, writes David Slater

Mali’s economy and finance minister Aloussény Sanou has told other government departments their expected funding has been blocked. The move comes after the World Bank suspended its International Development Association (IDA) credits and other facilities to the country.

Dubai-based Amea Power has secured funding for the 26.6MW solar PV project from the International Finance Corporation and others.

Energy, mines and quarries minister Bachir Ismaël Ouedraogo and economy, finance and development minister Lassané Kabore signed an agreement with World Bank Group country manager Maimouna Fam in mid-July covering financing for a solar rural electrification project (Soleer).

A number of investors remain interested in buying into generation companies (gencos) and distribution companies (discos) in Africa’s most populous country, but they face a daunting prospect, with President Muhammadu Buhari’s election promise to overhaul the dysfunctional electricity supply industry (ESI) still falling far short. Trends revealed by the African Energy Database show that, while installed capacity has increased in recent years, the availability of these plants has decreased to an average of 6,541.6MW in January-September 2016 and output declined to an average 3,054.6MWh/h – pitifully low for a country of over 174m people.

The World Bank signed partial risk guarantee (PRG) agreements on 24 August for the ground-breaking 450MW Azura-Edo scheme, whose successful close is expected to pave the way for further independent power projects (IPPs). Financial close is expected in the next few months.“This is a very important project for us, not as a deal but as a demonstration of how the Nigerian power sector needs to go forward. If you look at it, World Bank Group exposure to Azura-Edo is pretty significant.

Nigerian politicians’ focus in the year ahead will be on the 2019 elections and the chances of President Muhammadu Buhari serving a second term. Buhari seems to have returned home from medical treatment in London last August reinvigorated to an extent many doubters thought impossible, but if politics is a results business – rather than merely a question of the volume of resources at power-brokers’ disposal – the president and his All Progressives Congress (APC) have much to do.

Nigeria’s power sector had a year to forget in 2015 as the momentum that had started to build in the private sector was checked first by the political situation and then by the fall in oil prices, the currency crisis and the reorganisation of government finances. However, progress at the $900m, 450MW Azura-Edo power project – the first independent power producer (IPP) to be project financed in the post-privatisation regime – coupled with a renewed focus on gas supply by power, works and housing minister Babatunde Fashola and an accompanying $2 increase in the domestic gas price to $3.30/mBtu have brightened the prospects for the sector.

The local Sociedade Petrolífera Angolana (Somoil)’s deal to pay $830m for Lisbon-based Galp’s entire Angolan upstream assets marks another legacy hydrocarbons position being relinquished to a willing local buyer by a western energy company that says it is looking to “high-grade” its upstream portfolio.

senior officials have kept their counsel during a difficult period when coronavirus and the oil price slump have laid low the Nigerian economy, but there are signs that reformists in Abuja are trying to use the crisis to their advantage – reflected in action to end fuel subsidies and accelerate power sector reforms. But despite some potentially important steps forward, the outlook is extremely difficult in a humanitarian crisis where social distancing is all but impossible for the majority of the population.