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President Idriss Déby Itno has attempted to get tough with China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) over environmental violations at the Ronier field. This minor development is significant because of increased international interest in the Chadian upstream, with new companies taking acreage in the hope of finding successful rift basin plays, and for what it says about N’Djaména’s relationship with its biggest investor. The government halted CNPC’s operations in August after finding waste crude stored in open pits. However, it lifted the suspension in October after CNPC promised to literally clean up its act.

Cobalt International Energy said on 9 February that the US Department of Justice (DoJ) had closed its investigation into Cobalt’s operations in Angola. The DoJ and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) began investigating Cobalt in 2011 in response to allegations of a connection between senior Angolan government officials and Nazaki Oil and Gas, an Angolan company that, until 2014, held a working interest alongside Cobalt on blocks 9 and 21 (AE 284/21).

President José Eduardo dos Santos and his Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA) party mobilised the apparel of state (along with Brazilian election experts and a massive birthday bash for the 70-year-old leader) to secure a landslide in the 31 August general election. The MPLA may not win as much as the 82% it won in 2008, but it will have gained enough votes to legitimise dos Santos’ 33-year rule – at least in the eyes of Angolan power-brokers – and open the way for peaceful political transition.

A senior team leader at the Ethiopian Revenue & Customs Authority (ERCA) was jailed for five-and-a-half years in late July for receiving bribes and abuse of power. The Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission arrested several ERCA officials on suspicion of corruption in May 2013 and charges were made later that month. Kumlachew Yeshambel was charged with taking 200,000 birr ($10,600) in bribes.

Accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has started work with the federal auditor-general to carry out an audit on the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) over an alleged missing $20bn in oil revenues. Speaking at the World Economic Forum on Africa in Abuja on 8 May, finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the work, which began the previous week, should be completed within 16 weeks. “Our feeling is that the only way is to have a forensic audit that would let Nigerians know the truth about the issue,” she said.

Viewed from the 4th Congo International Oil & Gas Conference & Exhibition (CIEHC4) in the Turkish-built Kintélé conference centre outside Brazzaville, there should be little of major concern to Republic of Congo’s oil industry. France’s Total and Italy’s Eni have numerous projects under way and newcomers like Russian billionaire Vagit Alekperov’s Lukoil, US independent Kosmos Energy and trader Mercuria’s upstream arm are bedding in, while local firms led by Africa Oil and Gas Corporation (AOGC) and Petro Congo (Petco) are taking up ever more acreage.

Hyperdynamics Corporation said on 12 March that Tullow Oil had declared force majeure over its Guinea acreage. The announcement followed a guilty plea by French national Frédéric Cilins to obstructing a US criminal investigation in connection with a bribery probe into how Beny Steinmetz’s BSG Resources (BSGR) acquired mining rights in Guinea.On 30 September, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) issued a subpoena asking Hyperdynamics, the original licence holder, to produce documents relating to its business in Guinea. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a similar subpoena in January this year.

Ecobank chairman Kolapo Lawson was forced to stand down in late October after concerns were raised about corporate governance. Media reports said Lawson agreed to go after board members meeting in Ghana decided his departure was
necessary to restore confidence among customers and shareholders following a battle over governance issues. The Nigerian central bank wrote to the pan-African lender in April, notifying it of Lawson’s failure to repay $8.79m (N1.4bn) in debts sold to state-owned Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria 


For the first time in many years, the hard pressed Algerian government is considering an increase in electric power tariffs – a policy certain to meet intense opposition at a politically sensitive time. At the same time, the national gas and power utility Sonelgaz intends to raise investment finance through a domestic bond and is also contemplating an internal restructuring programme. Speaking at Sonelgaz’s general meeting in Algiers on 28 September, the company’s long-standing president director-general Noureddine Bouterfa told the assembled directors, managers and employee representatives that they needed to work with the state to implement gradual prices rises that “will not bring social cohesion into question”.

Project developers and financiers spend inordinate amounts of time and money assessing risks and their mitigation. But when traditional credit and political risk calculations are being made, they still too often overlook the populations whose land they are building on, even if they think they have community engagement in hand. Disgruntled populations may express their frustration and even violently turn on developments that seem beyond their control, and that threaten their (sometimes literally) sacred home turf.

The former head of state electricity company Société Nigérienne d’Electricité (Nigelec) Foukory Ibrahim has been arrested and jailed on suspicion of embezzling some CFA20bn (£25.7m). Ibrahim was an ally of former president Mamadou Tandja, who was toppled in a February 2010 military coup. Ibrahim had immunity as a serving MP for the Mouvement National pour la Société du Développement, which is now in opposition, but this was lifted last year.

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.

Climate change denier Donald Trump’s 8 November election victory stunned the COP22 meeting in Marrakech, before the other 196 governments responded with defiant statements supporting the Paris Agreement. Tackling climate change and energy poverty has been central to Barack Obama’s presidency; his championing of COP was underlined by secretary of state John Kerry’s robust appearance in Marrakech; the Power Africa initiative is supported by the Electrify Africa Act, which puts sub-Saharan economies’ lack of energy access onto the US statute book.

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.

As usual, there was no explanation from Luanda of President José Eduardo dos Santos’ partial government reshuffle on 5 October, which reorganised key economic departments and the senior ranks of the military.