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Erin Energy Corporation has announced the resignation of chief executive Segum Omidele after less than a year in the post. The company, formerly Camac Energy, gave no explanation for the move. Senior vice-president, general counsel and secretary Jean-Michel Malek will serve as interim chief executive with effect from 22 February, while the board seeks a permanent replacement. Omidele served in various positions with the company from September 2011 and was chief operating officer from September 2015 until his appointment as chief executive in May 2016.

Peter Bosshard left campaign group International Rivers on 22 December and will take up a new position on 1 February as director of the finance programme of the Sunrise Project, leading a new campaign to accelerate the shift from fossil fuels to clean energy. Under Bosshard’s leadership, International Rivers has campaigned vigorously against large dam projects in Africa. The NGO has been a staunch critic of the Inga scheme in Democratic Republic of Congo, which it argues will not benefit most Congolese, and has gathered evidence of the problems encountered by communities resettled as part of Sudan’s Merowe dam project.

AIM-listed Wentworth Resources announced on 13 November that chief executive Eskil Jersing was stepping down from the board and leaving the company with immediate effect. Jersing joined Wentworth in June 2018 with a mandate to drive the business forward, but the share price has declined steadily since then.

Western governments are determined to interdict the Indian-flagged tanker containing a cargo of Libya crude sold to an Emirati buyer by the Cyrenaica-based parallel management of National Oil Corporation (NOC). On 27 April, the vessel was located in waters south-east of Malta, having been turned back by the authorities in Valletta the previous day. Failure to prevent it from unloading the cargo and completing the transaction in defiance of a United Nations Security Council resolution banning unauthorised crude exports would destroy the credibility of the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA).

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.

A group of bureaucrats and politicians in the planning, works, energy and finance ministries stand accused of manipulating the state’s policy and procurement procedures since 2012 to steer control of the energy sector into the arms of Xaris Energy, a company closely linked to the ruling Swapo party. Xaris is partly owned by Swapo secretary-general Nangolo Mbumba, who holds a direct interest via his AMA Family Trust, according to an investigation into the N$7.4bn ($554m) expansion of Walvis Bay harbour.

The Commercial Court in London has ruled that the Ghanaian government could not challenge an arbitration award made against it as its appeal had come too late. The arbitration was brought by Ghana Power Generation Company (GPGC), which procured two GE LM 6000 combined cycle power plants in Italy to be installed in Aboadze under an emergency purchase agreement.

Soma Oil & Gas executive director for Africa Hassan Khaire has been named as prime minister in the government of new Somali president Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed. Soma said Khaire had resigned from the board and relinquished all his shares in the company. Khaire, 46, had worked with Soma since the company was founded in 2013, and before that as director for the Norwegian Refugee Council for Somalia and East Africa, having come to Norway in the late 1980s as a refugee.

A total of 53 individuals and companies have now been charged over corruption at Kenya Power in a case that has become increasingly politicised. Among those charged are 11 current and former managers, including former managing director and chief executive Ben Chumo and current acting managing director and chief executive Ken Tarus. Tarus has been replaced by Jared Omondi Othieno, who had been acting general manager for street lighting. Another five managers have been suspended.

Tribal rights NGO Survival International has lodged a complaint with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) against Italian company Salini Impregilo, which is building the 1,870MW Gilgel Gibe III dam on the Omo River in Ethiopia. The complaint was filed under the 2011 OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, to which Salini is a signatory.

The World Bank Group announced on 25 July that it had suspended disbursements of funding to the Inga-3 Basse Chute and Mid-Size Hydropower Development Technical Assistance (TA) Project. “This follows the government of DRC’s decision to take the project in a different strategic direction to that agreed between the World Bank and the government in 2014,” the bank said. The decision follows the announcement of a new timetable for bidding on the scheme ordered by President Joseph Kabila Kabange.

TheWorld Bank on 6 May announced the 20-month debarment of China-based Liaoning-EFACEC Electrical Equipment Company Limited (LEEEC) in connection with fraudulent practices as part of the Lusaka Transmission and Distribution Rehabilitation Project. The announcement came a week after the African Development Bank (AfDB) announced a similar move against Sinotec Company. The World Bank said LEEEC had failed to disclose a conflict of interest and misrepresented its past experience to meet the requirements of a contract under the project.

Globeleq chief financial officer and chief operating officer Mike Scholey will take over as chief executive from 1 January, replacing Paul Hanrahan. “We are very excited to have Mike taking up the CEO position in 2020. We believe his well-established relationships with key stakeholders, combined with his business insights and current experience working closely with the outgoing chief executive, Paul Hanrahan, make him the best candidate for the role. Mike and Paul will continue to work together in transitioning the company’s leadership through to the end of the year,” said Globeleq board chairman Laurence Mulliez.

Algeria’s compliance with the Covid-19 lockdown was sharply illustrated when on 20 March the Hirak opposition movement did not march against the government for the first Friday since 22 February 2019. President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on 17 March announced a ban on public gatherings, including an end to prayers in mosques as well as mass demonstrations.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has launched an investigation into payments made to Sonangol by Cobalt International Energy for a research centre that has yet to materialise. In its 10-K annual filing on 14 March, Cobalt said that, on 13 March, the SEC had informed the company by telephone that it had initiated an informal inquiry related to the Sonangol Research and Technology Centre. Payments for the centre were a condition of a production-sharing contract signed by Cobalt and BP in December 2011.