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A long-awaited power sector cost of service study being carried out by UK-based Energy Market and Regulatory Consultants (EMRC) will not now be completed until 2021. Energy permanent secretary Trevor Kaunda said the government was hopeful the study, which had been promised for year-end, would be completed next year and would help settle several disputes within the sector.

The Government of Ghana (GoG) is under fire as details emerge of a costly arbitral ruling over an emergency purchase agreement (EPA) signed with Ghana Power Generation Company (GPGC), which in 2015 procured two GE LM 6000 combined cycle power plants in Italy to supply 107MW at Aboadze.

President Macky Sall’s government has emerged from the immediate chaos of extensive rioting and is pointing to major gas, infrastructure and other developments as a way to restore growth and create jobs, but its calm outward face hides deep concerns over governance and social tensions in a country which has sucked in debt and equity on the basis of its stable reputation, write Waly Dione Faye and Jon Marks.

Politics runs through even the most technical questions in a Republic of South Africa (RSA) ruled for nearly three decades by the African National Congress (ANC). Power struggles and influence-broking within the party have a direct impact on the implementation of policy. Along with data and project updates, African Energy’s new 160-page South Africa Power Report 2021/22 highlights the need for President Cyril Ramaphosa to implement reforms to the electricity supply industry (ESI) and other key sectors, in the face of opposition from deeply-rooted ideological and factional rivals.

Ghana’s reputation as a donor/investor darling has taken many knocks, and more court battles are expected as international arbitration beckons in the battle between Eni and its local partner, writes James Gavin.

A dispute over maritime rights between Equatorial Guinea and Gabon in Corisco Bay is heading for the courts, with implications for the exploration and development of hydrocarbons resources. The dispute between the two countries dates back to the early 1970s and centres on three uninhabited islands, Mbanié and the two tiny neighbouring islets of Conga and Les Cocotiers, which both sides claim.

A keystone of Libya’s oil and gas industry for the past seven years, National Oil Corporation chairman Mustafa Sanalla is under intense pressure, with his position weakened by further deterioration in an antagonistic relationship with oil minister Mohammed Aoun and demands for his dismissal from leaders of the Cyrenaica-based House of Representatives. It comes at a time when Libya is ill-prepared for any disruption to its main source of foreign currency revenues, writes John Hamilton.

Zimbabwe is preparing to sell a stake in the state-owned fuel marketing and distribution company Petrotrade in the next few months, African Energy understands. Petrotrade – which has the mandate to market and distribute petroleum products, including diesel, gasoline, lubricants and liquid petroleum gas – is seeking a strategic partner to inject fresh capital into the business in order to improve operational capacity and enable it to expand its footprint.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has ordered that the recommendations made by the taskforce set up to review power purchase agreements (PPAs) be implemented by end-December. This includes the renegotiation of active PPAs and a raft of measures to tackle the performance of beleaguered utility Kenya Power, with the goal of reducing electricity costs by a third.

President Félix Tshisekedi’s efforts to revive Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)’s attraction to international oil companies (IOCs) are admirable on paper, as are his efforts to revive – and bring improved governance to – the crucial energy and mining sectors. Having broken with his alliance of convenience with ex-president Joseph Kabila, Tshisekedi’s government is looking for takers for blocks 1 and 2 in the Albertine Graben, and there is talk of a new licensing round, with plans to tender for 16 oil and three gas blocks in the onshore Atlantic basin, Cuvette Centrale and the western Rift Valley.

Petroleum Agency South Africa (Pasa) chief executive Philinde Masangane has defended Royal Dutch Shell following a recent court ruling that forced the oil major to suspend a 3D seismic campaign off the Eastern Cape coast (see main article). According to Masangane, Shell and its partners have done nothing illegal and complied with the guidelines available.

Financial statements from Canadian-based First Quantum Minerals (FQM) show that Zambia’s largest miner was issued an arbitration award for its Kansanshi mine subsidiary in a case against national power utility Zesco.

Commodity traders remain vital to Africa and the global economy, yet even the mightiest traders are finding conditions difficult amid the shocks to oil prices and global markets caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine. Trading activity that was in the past routine has become unviable in recent months owing to the increased need for credit. African Energy examines how players have responded to changes in the sector over the past decade, from the information revolution – which has made previously difficult-to-acquire data readily accessible – to shifts in business models, at least in part, towards vertical integration and increasing scale, that have seen traders become processors and even producers in their own right.

Commodity giant Glencore has pleaded guilty and agreed to pay the US authorities almost $1.2bn to end investigations into bribery and market manipulation. The settlement was part of a coordinated resolution with criminal and civil authorities in the US, UK, and Brazil announced on 24 May.

The oil and gas industry and local environmental campaigners are awaiting a ruling from the Gqeberha High Court in the Eastern Cape, following a three-day hearing on Shell’s offshore seismic survey plans which was adjourned on 31 May with judgement reserved.