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The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) notified Hyperdynamics on 24 April that the company had fallen below its continued listing standards. The Houston-based company’s average global market capitalisation had been less than $50m over a consecutive 30 trading-day period and its stockholders’ equity is less than $50m. The company moved to the main NYSE from the NYSE Amex exchange in July 2011 after Ray Leonard took over as president and chief executive (AE 213/15), but shareholder enthusiasm has evaporated.

The Milan Public Prosecutor’s office has placed Royal Dutch Shell under formal investigation for international corruption offences relating to its purchase of OPL 245 in Nigeria. Shell’s headquarters in The Hague were searched on 17 February by Italian and Dutch financial police. The investigation relates to the sale in 2011 to Shell and Eni of the block, which contains the Etan and Zabazaba fields. The companies paid $1.1bn, plus a signature bonus of $200m, to the Nigerian government, which in a back-to-back deal negotiated by the attorney general then transferred $1.1bn to Malabu Oil & Gas, a company owned by former oil minister Dan Etete, to which he had granted rights to the acreage in 1998.

South African Development Community (SADC) energy ministers met in Johannesburg on 24 July to express concern at the region’s estimated 8,247MW generation shortfall, while noting that 1,999MW had been brought on line in 2014 from new plants or rehabilitation.Of the 2014 additions, 150MW was commissioned in Angola, 150MW in Mozambique, 1,654MW in South Africa and 245MW in Zambia. Some 83% of new capacity was from renewable sources, predominantly in South Africa.

An Italian court has sentenced two middlemen to four years in prison for their role in Royal Dutch Shell and Eni’s 2011 acquisition of OPL 245. Emeka Obi and Gianluca Di Nardo had opted for a fast-track trial, while a larger trial including Royal Dutch Shell, Eni and 13 other defendants is ongoing.

The Somali government has turned to the United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague to resolve its maritime border dispute with Kenya. In its application, posted on the ICJ’s website on 28 August, Somali minister of foreign affairs and investment promotion Abdirahman Dualeh Beileh asked the court to determine the course of the maritime boundary, saying “diplomatic negotiations, in which… respective views have been fully exchanged, have failed to resolve this disagreement”. In its application, Somalia asks the court “to determine, on the basis of international law, the complete course of the single maritime boundary dividing all the maritime areas appertaining to Somalia and to Kenya in the Indian Ocean, including the continental shelf beyond 200 [nautical miles]”.

Chad has been accepted as a full member of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) at an EITI board meeting in Myanmar on 15 October. An EITI statement said the country was deemed ‘compliant’ with the global EITI transparency standard, which means Chadians have access to extensive information about how their natural resources are governed.“Thanks to the EITI, some major reforms have been engaged when it comes to follow-up of revenue collection and payments from the extractive industries. Implementing the EITI has allowed us to realise that we do not have an adequate system for tracking these revenues.

A London court on 15 December turned down a request by Nigeria’s Malabu Oil & Gas to release $85m frozen last year at the request of the Italian authorities amid an investigation into corruption at Eni relating to the licensing of OPL 245. The sale of OPL 245 to Shell and Eni in 2011 is under investigation by the Public Prosecutor of Milan, the UK’s National Crime Agency and the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

Eskom chief executive Phakamani Hadebe has resigned due to ill health, the struggling utility announced on 24 May. “It is no secret that this role comes with unimaginable demands which have unfortunately had a negative impact on my health. In the best interests of Eskom and my family, I have therefore decided to step down,” an Eskom statement quoted Hadebe as saying.Hadebe, who will step down at the end of July, was the eighth chief executive since 2010, if those filling the role in an acting capacity are included.

The much-anticipated partial float of the naira, introduced from 20 June, reflected a concession by President Muhammadu Buhari, who had resisted devaluation as he did during his first stint as president in the 1980s. Buhari was forced by deteriorating economic conditions and declining confidence to listen to markets. African Energy hears that concerns over the naira and other issues have led to the World Bank Group, a key guarantor of the liberalised generation and distribution system, making quiet threats to stop guarantees.

Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) says energy minister Matthew Nkhuwa acted beyond his authority by declaring its transmission network common carrier to allow government-controlled Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) to continue receiving power supply despite a year of failing to pay its bills. CEC is seeking to overturn the statutory instrument (SI) issued by Nkhuwa on 29 May declaring CEC’s network common carrier.

Energy minister Medard Kalemani has said the first phase of the 2,115MW Julius Nyerere hydropower project at Stiegler’s Gorge is more than 70% complete. Speaking after visiting the project site on 5 April to counter reports that the project had stalled due to a shortage of funds, he said the Treasury had paid more than $700m towards the project, which has an estimated total cost of $3bn.“We are on schedule for the first phase, which is due to be completed next year,” he said.

The National Agency of Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels (ANPG) has announced three block awards in the deep-water Namibe Basin from its 2019 bid round. ANPG said Sonangol was awarded 35% in Block 27, with the other 65% remaining open for negotiation by other interested companies. Eni was awarded operatorship of Block 28 with a 60% interest, alongside Sonangol with 20%, leaving 20% open for negotiations. Block 29 was awarded to Total as operator with 46%, alongside Equinor (24.5%), Sonangol (20%) and BP (9.5%).

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on 13 April charged the managing director of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) with orchestrating a bribery scheme to help a client win a power plant contract in Ghana. The SEC alleges that US-Ghanaian citizen Asante Berko – a former Goldman Sachs employee who was appointed TOR managing director in January 2020 – violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by arranging for his firm’s client, a Turkish energy company, to funnel at least $2.5m to a Ghana- based intermediary to bribe government officials in order to win an electrical power plant project.

New Sonangol chief executive Isabel dos Santos has suspended all talks relating to the sale of assets belonging to the Angolan state oil firm and stripped its legal department of most of its powers.A brief statement posted on Sonangol’s website following a 27 June meeting of the new board said the evaluation, negotiation and sale of any assets held by Sonangol and its subsidiaries had been suspended with immediate effect.

Angola’s government is running short of money just as the issue of who might succeed President José Eduardo dos Santos again comes under discussion. The president raised eyebrows in early July when he said he intended to see out his term of office, and there has been increased repression of government opponents. At the same time, a leaked memo from Sonangol chairman Francisco de Lemos José Maria has sharply criticised the legacy of his predecessor Manuel Vicente, now Angolan vice-president, and spelled out the problems facing the company.