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With its redomiciling from Australia to Norway completed at end-February, PetroNor is now looking to increase production from its African assets. However, the investigation into former chief executive Knut Søvold continues, following his arrest in December over projects in Africa.

The energy-focused group belonging to Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch remains a major player in petroleum products trading and distribution and potentially upstream gas developments during a period when rising prices are adding to popular pressures on the Moroccan government to act and the PM has come under unexpectedly severe personal attack, writes a Special Correspondent, with Jon Marks.

President Tshisekedi is seeking to make waves in upstream oil policy, just as he has in the power and mining sectors since breaking away from his alliance with Joseph Kabila. With the Kabila legacy in question over the controversial Albertine Graben fields, more legal disputes could beckon, but the government sees considerable investment upside, despite the outlook for hydrocarbons looking very different from a decade ago, writes François Misser

There have been further twists in the long-running $10bn arbitration case between the federal government of Nigeria and the British Virgin Islands-registered Process and Industrial Development (P&ID) over a 2010 gas supply and processing agreement (GSPA). There are signs the government may appeal against a US court ruling on sovereign immunity and a trial has now been scheduled at the High Court in London for January 2023.

After a difficult decade during which operations have been interrupted by conflict, disputes over debts and gas supply and allegations of corruption, Norway’s Yara has sold its half-share in the Libyan Norwegian Fertilizer Company (Lifeco) to National Oil Corporation (NOC). On 31 December, NOC announced that it had bought out its partner, meaning that the Marsa Al-Brega-based ammonia and urea production facilities are now owned 75% by the corporation and 25% by the Libyan Investment Authority sovereign wealth fund.

IOCs and business lobbies continue to contest the 2019 decision to impose stricter rules on currency transfers and payments across the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (Cemac). The regulations were promoted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to improve governance and economic management, but companies complain they have been starved of cash for operations in the Central African franc zone .

Energy investors are pushing for Tanzania’s President John Magufuli to deliver on his promise to back competitive energy projects in his second term. Renewable energy plants in particular have potential to move forward if the government is willing to compromise, writes Dan Marks.

Sonatrach has settled its dispute with Spain’s Naturgy Energy Group by agreeing to revise their gas contracts while avoiding the arbitration proceedings threatened by Algeria. The Spanish utility initiated negotiations in May, and three separate contracts were renegotiated in a review of pricing, volume and duration provisions, the two companies said on 7 October. The contracts were signed by Naturgy executive chairman Francisco Reynes and Sonatrach president director- general Toufik Hakkar, during a visit to Algiers by Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez.

Maamba Collieries Limited (MCL) has launched arbitration proceedings against Zambian state power utility Zesco in London’s High Court seeking payment of $350m of arrears. MCL, majority-owned by India’s Nava Bharat Ventures, says it may be forced to shut its 300MW coal-fired power plant as mounting debt and pressure from lenders pose a serious threat to the viability of its operations.

The Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN) and British Virgin Islands-listed Process & Industrial Developments Ltd (P&ID) presented their cases at the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court in London, United Kingdom, on 13-14 July in the latest milestone of their long-running dispute. Nigeria is challenging an arbitration ruling against it, now worth nearly $10bn, over P&ID’s claim that the government’s failure to meet its obligations caused its gas-processing project to fail.

The management of National Oil Corporation (NOC) based in the eastern Libyan town of Al-Bayda has suspended its attempts to sell oil independently from the established NOC management in Tripoli since the United Nations (UN)-backed Presidency Council led by Faiz Serraj moved to the capital. But the legitimacy of what the UN and its backers say is now the recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) is far from established. The dominant power brokers in Cyrenaica are still negotiating the terms of their endorsement of the new administration. Without their support it will be constitutionally weak, and failure to agree will start a new conflict over control of Sirte Basin oil infrastructure.

One region seems above all others to stubbornly buck the positive political and economic trends recorded over two decades by African Energy: it comprises the six Communauté Economique et Monétaire de l’Afrique Centrale (Cemac) countries and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Events in the last month, including a failed coup in Gabon and contested elections in DRC, underline Central Africa’s chronic crisis of leadership. Such political behaviours are increasingly seen as an anachronism in a world structured by social media, as well as by older social bonds and traditional patterns of coercion by elites.

President Paul Biya, who has celebrated his 90th birthday and will soon have completed 41 years in power, takes a hands-off approach to presiding over Cameroon, whose domestic divisions continue to fuel regional conflicts while international supporters help to underpin the economy, writes Paul Melly.

The race to develop the 1.5GW Mphanda Nkuwa hydroelectric project has come down to two international bids, with the winner expected to make an equity investment of up to $700m in one of southern Africa’s most important power projects.

The International Monetary Fund has trimmed its economic growth expectations for sub-Saharan Africa in its latest World Economic Outlook to 3.6% for 2023. Low-income countries are expected to outperform most of their richer neighbours, but some analysts have warned the IMF is being overly optimistic.