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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.

Dubai-based AMEA Power will begin commercial operation of its 50MW solar PV plant in Blitta in March, the company told African Energy. The plant is being built by a consortium of UAE’s Danway and India’s Jakson Solar. The project has moved quickly through development and construction despite the coronavirus pandemic. AMEA Power first visited Togo in February 2019 and signed a memorandum of understanding with the government to develop a 30MW plant a month later.

The arrival of a floating regasification unit at Tema is the final piece in the jigsaw for sub-Saharan Africa’s first offshore LNG import project. Long-awaited LNG imports are intended to reduce the cost of gas while stabilising supply in the east of the country, writes Dan Marks 

The arrival of a floating regasification unit at tema is the final piece in the jigsaw for sub-Saharan africa’s first offshore Lng import project. Long-awaited Lng imports are intended to reduce the cost of gas while stabilising supply in the east of the country, writes Dan Marks.

Office National de l’Electricité et de l’Eau Potable (ONEE) is making progress with its 850MW Integrated Wind Project. The utility announced on 6 January that the 210MW Midelt wind farm has begun commercial operations. The plant is located on a 2,300ha site 8km north-east of Midelt. It is owned by ONEE, Italy’s Enel Green Power and Morocco’s Nareva Holding.

Four companies or joint ventures have been shortlisted for oil blocks in western Uganda offered in the country’s second licensing round. The four are Uganda National Oil Company, Total E&P, Australian miner DGR Global, whose Armour Energy subsidiary already has the Kanywataba Block, and local company PetroAfrik Energy Resources East Africa, in a joint venture with Nigeria’s Niger Delta Petroleum Resources, the New Vision daily reported.

Taiwan’s CPC Corporation held a ceremony on 1 December to mark the arrival of the first cargo of crude from Chad’s Oryx concession at the Dalin refinery. The first cargo of oil from the Oryx concession, a tanker carrying about 950,000 barrels of crude oil, departed from the Kribi terminal in Cameroon in October 2020 and arrived in Taiwan at the end of November.

A year after initial awards were first announced, minister of petroleum and mineral resources Tarek El-Molla has signed oil and gas exploration agreements with six major IOCs and their Egyptian partner Tharwa Petroleum. Seven of the agreements involving Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (Egas) are for offshore areas in the Mediterranean, while two are with South Valley Egyptian Petroleum Holding Company (Ganope) covering areas in the Red Sea. The ministry has said it expects to sign three more agreements soon.

The increasing momentum behind ‘green bonds’ and other instruments that could significantly mitigate the impacts of climate change has been underlined by the decision of one of Wall Street’s most charismatic figures, former US Treasury secretary Henry (‘Hank’) Paulson, to return to finance as executive chairman of the new global fund TPG Rise Climate. Paulson, now 74, was initially approached by Irish rock star turned impact investor Bono.

Sasol announced on 21 December that it had signed a sale securities purchase agreement with Azura Power Limited for its 49% shareholding in the 175MW Central Termica de Ressano Garcia (CTRG) plant. Azura will pay approximately $145m, and the transaction is subject to regulatory approval and the waiver of pre-emption rights held by utility Electricidade de Moçambique, Sasol said.

Pan African Resources Plc announced in December that it has signed an engineering, procurement and construction contract with juwi South Africa to build a 9.975MW solar PV plant to supply its Elikhulu tailings retreatment plant. Pan African began a feasibility study for the plant in 2019 to reduce the risk of load-shedding disrupting Elikhulu’s operations.

Renewables developer Starsight Energy has closed a ten-year N3.6bn ($9.4m) senior debt facility with the Nigeria Infrastructure Development Fund to help finance commercial and industrial projects across Nigeria.

Solar off-grid developer Winch Energy has secured $100m of investment to fund its African expansion plans. The company’s business model aims to develop projects quickly and at sufficient scale to make them commercially viable, writes Marc Howard

Plans are moving ahead for a new refinery to be built in Pointe-Noire’s special economic zone (SEZ), according to hydrocarbons minister Jean-Marc Thystère Tchicaya, following an agreement signed with a Chinese company identified as Beijing Fortune Dingheng Investment. Ministry of Hydrocarbons downstream projects adviser Alphonse Obami said: “According to our estimates, it is very probable that the work on this second refinery will start in Q1 2021.”

Siemens Gamesa announced on 4 January that it has signed an engineering, procurement and construction contract with Ethiopian Electric Power to build the 100MW Assela wind farm. The contract includes the delivery of 29 SG 3.4-132 wind turbines, which are expected to come online in Q1 2023. The plant is expected to produce 330MWh/yr of electricity at less than €0.09/kWh ($0.11/kWh).