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BNP Paribas has beaten off competition from Crédit Agricole and Standard Chartered to win the mandate to advise Nigeria LNG Ltd (NLNG) subsidiary Bonny Gas Transport (BGT) on an estimated $1bn financing package to purchase six new LNG carriers; Standard & Poor’s has revised Eskom’s credit outlook from stable to negative, and affirmed the state power utility’s BBB+ long-term rating; London Stock Exchange-listed Ophir Energy has sold $240m of new shares to part‐finance its expanded 2012-13 exploration programme

The cost of the Libyan conflict is becoming ever more apparent for construction and engineering companies, with the threat that under-insured businesses may be landed with potentially catastrophic losses if they forfeit on-demand contract bonds.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is considering financing a 26.8MWp solar photovoltaic power plant, which would be Burkina Faso’s first independent power producer (IPP) project. The proposed investment includes an A loan of up to €12m ($13.3m) and risk management products (interest and cross currency swaps), according to project documents published on the IFC website on 20 September. In addition, IFC intends to mobilise the remaining balance of the debt required for the project, including a senior concessional loan of up to €10m from IFC as implementing entity of the IFC-Canada Climate Change Programme.

Tanzania Electricity Supply Company (Tanesco) has sparked a storm of protest after the leaking of a letter to Symbion Power saying it was “ceasing negotiations” over a power purchase agreement (PPA) for the 120MW Ubungo plant, despite having signed the document last December. Symbion said in a 30 May statement that Ubongo, where US President Barack Obama outlined his Power Africa initiative in July 2013, was operating under a PPA signed on 10 December by Tanesco managing director Felchesmi Mramba. “There is no question whatsoever that the PPA is a valid and binding document,” the company said.

The Africa-EU Energy Partnership (AEEP) will hold its second high-level meeting on 12-13 February 2014, in Addis Ababa. One of eight Joint Africa-European Union Strategic Partnerships created in 2007 – and by most accounts the most dynamic – the AEEP will use the meeting to put forward priorities for action that will feed into preparations for the planned Africa-EU Summit meeting, scheduled to be held in Brussels on 2-3 April. The meeting will unveil the AEEP’s First Monitoring Report (for which African Energy publisher Cross-border Information is consultant), showing progress made towards meeting targets for generation, energy security, access and energy efficiency.

The financing for Citadel Capital’s ambitious Cairo refinery project would be impossible to assemble in Egypt’s current economic and political climate of a looming balance of payments crisis and President Mohamed Morsi’s growing unpopularity. A key element of the Egyptian Refining Company (ERC) deal for lenders and shareholders was a financial guarantee ensuring that Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) will pay the plant’s builder and operator even if the country’s dire foreign reserves situation persists. ERC chief executive Tom Thomason says there is no risk that his company will join oil companies owed significant arrears by the oil and gas parastatal.

The government has approved a domestic electricity price rise of more than 200% from 3 October, raising tariffs to about US$0.12/kWh from approximately US$0.02/kWh. Following the rise, the second since August, domestic users will pay Z$0.41 for the first 50kWh and Z$0.91 for 51-200kWh, a stepped tariff designed to encourage energy saving in view of the country’s critical power supply situation. Tariffs were also increased for institutions, and commercial and industrial users, which are now being charged for energy usage depending on whether they consume power during peak, standard or off-peak times.

While the public consultation process for the long-awaited Upstream Petroleum Resources Development Bill was launched last year, the bill may not be passed before 2021. A draft of the bill, which stipulates a 20% carried interest for the state in upstream projects, plus a minimum 10% black-owned interest, was published for comment on 24 December, with comments invited to be submitted to the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy by 21 February this year.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Investment Bank will provide sovereign-guaranteed loans of up to €46.5m ($49.9m) each to Société Tunisienne de l’Electricité et du Gaz under agreements signed in late November. The financing will be used to reinforce and expand the electricity transmission grid in the north-east of the country to enhance its efficiency and reliability and prepare the grid for additional generation capacity including renewables, as well as possible future regional interconnections, the EBRD announced in a press release on 29 November.

Mines minister Martin Kabwelulu Labilo kept his job in the interim government formed by new prime minister Louis Koyagialo Ngbase te Gerengbo on 9 March, and was also granted the hydrocarbons portfolio

The World Bank board has approved $203m of funding for the Niger Basin Water Resources Development and Sustainable Ecosystems Management Programme, which includes support for the Kandadji Programme.

Leading Moroccan developer Nareva Holding’s Société Energie Eolienne du Maroc (EEM) has announced the launch of a 201.6MW wind project – dubbed Aftissat – to be built to the south of Boujdour in the disputed Western Sahara. With a December 2018 target date to enter service, the plant is intended to supply major industrial customers linked to the national high-voltage grid. This will require construction of a 250km, 400kV transmission line.Financing agreements for the MD4bn ($391m) investment were signed on 8 December by EEM and a group of local banks led by Attijariwafa Bank and Banque Centrale Populaire.

A Malian government delegation met donors at the European Commission in Brussels on 5 February to assess progress made since a conference on 15 May 2013 at which donors pledged €3.25bn ($4.4bn) to finance a recovery plan. Islamist fighters seized control of northern Mali in 2012 following a coup in Bamako. They were driven back by French military intervention, and civilian rule was re-established in mid-2013, but a truce with Tuareg separatists is fragile and security remains an issue in the north.

The audit, funded by the UK’s Department for International Development, was contracted following revelations of the so-called “cashgate” scandal that caused President Joyce Banda to sack her cabinet in October and led to the suspension of $150m of aid by major donors, including the UK and European Union. The first three of some 70 people who have been charged appeared in court in late January. The scandal has dealt a substantial blow to Banda, who had sought to depict herself as a “new broom” sweeping out the corruption and poor governance of her predecessor Bingu wa Mutharika.

Rio Tinto, Aluminium Corporation of China (Chinalco) and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation have signed an investment framework with the government of Guinea to develop blocks 3 and 4 of the Simandou iron ore deposit, creating the largest combined iron ore and infrastructure project in Africa. A joint statement said the signing provided the legal and commercial foundation for the project. The investment framework will now be presented to parliament for ratification. Once it is ratified, the project partners will finalise a bankable feasibility study to confirm all the project parameters, including cost and timeline.