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One plant was not awarded in Nigeria’s generation plant round: Afam Generation Company in Rivers State. The bidders for the 776MW unit are alleged to have included a company linked to former power minister Professor Bart Nnaji, a key player in the privatisation process.

The World Bank board has approved $203m of funding for the Niger Basin Water Resources Development and Sustainable Ecosystems Management Programme, which includes support for the Kandadji Programme.

Nearly four years after the onset of the global financial crisis, constraints on raising finance for oil and gas projects in Africa show no sign of easing, while in many jurisdictions the cost of entering exploration contracts is high.

A bilateral energy agreement signed by presidents Ian Khama and Jacob Zuma on 31 August has been greeted with a mixed reaction. The agreement is intended to lead to the export of coal from Botswana to South Africa.

The US Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) on 17 September announced a loan of up to $250m for the 60MW Boshoff solar PV facility. The project was selected as a preferred bidder in the second round of South Africa’s renewable energy independent power producer procurement programme (REIPPPP).

Huge offshore gas reserves could make Tanzania a major new energy frontier, but the devil is in the detail for a government that distrusts international business, in a country where gas master plans and policy remain elusive, and domestic electricity and gas supply are in crisis, writes Jon Marks in Dar es Salaam.

Germany’s Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), the European Union and the African Union Commission’s Regional Geothermal Coordination Unit are gearing up to select the first projects from their new €50m Geothermal Risk Mitigation Facility (GRMF), to support developments in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

President Morsi and his conservative economic team are bedding in, but financiers and insurers remain very cautious about Egyptian risk markets, writes Kevin Godier

The murder of US ambassador Chris Stevens and three of his staff during what appears to have been a planned attack on the consulate in Benghazi could hardly send a more negative message about Libya’s prospects. Security has been top of the agenda for the interim authorities who have ruled the country since its liberation. But it also seems to have topped the ‘too difficult’ list.

India’s Jindal Steel & Power has bought Mmamabula project developer CIC Energy for $116m and plans to push ahead with development of the stalled project. The deal will give Jindal Africa mining rights for high quality thermal coal from the Greater Mmamabula coalfield in south-east Botswana, which is estimated to hold 2.4bn tonnes.

The Export-Import Bank of the United States signed a declaration of intent with South Africa’s state-owned Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) on 7 August to provide up to $2bn for South African energy projects sourcing equipment and services from the US, with an emphasis on clean energy.

Licence awards to unknown companies have caused a storm in Sierra Leone, with government officials blaming a ‘transparent’ process imposed on them by external consultants for the controversy. Thalia Griffiths and Eleanor Gillespie investigate the exploration boom in an emerging Transform Margin play.

Ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service has changed its outlook for Total’s debt from stable to negative over concerns about the impact of the company’s increased capital spending.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has finally implemented a 2010 law requiring oil, gas and mining companies listed on US exchanges to disclose payments to host governments.

Nigeria’s new sovereign wealth fund is a potentially positive development that will be keenly watched by global markets and by investors in Africa’s second biggest economy, but observers are cautious, writes Kevin Godier.