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Acting President Goodluck Jonathan has submitted to the senate his first 33 nominations to fill government ministries a week after sacking the cabinet in a bold move to stamp his authority on government.

The financing package for Botswana Power Corporation (BPC)’s $1.6bn-plus, 600MW Morupule B coal-fired power station and transmission project has attracted considerable attention. Funding included $379.1m from the World Bank, divided into

A formal apology over a US State Department spokesman’s comments fails to quell anger at National Oil Corporation as its chairman threatens to favour China and Russia.

Faced with the embarrassing fact that just two countries met the 9 March validation deadline, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative has delayed a decision on what it should do with the other candidates until next month’s board meeting in Berlin.

The introduction of fresh regulations for Sonatrach’s tendering process could release a large backlog of projects at the company within weeks.

The return of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua from Saudi Arabia, where he has been in hospital for more than three months, is threatening to undermine acting president Goodluck Jonathan’s efforts to consolidate his position and derail attempts to get the Niger Delta ceasefire and controversial oil sector reforms back on track (

The Brazzaville government has received some reward for the closure in 2008 of Congolaise de Trading (Cotrade), the controversial marketing arm of parastatal Société Nationale des Pétroles du Congo (SNPC) that was chaired by the president’s son, Denis-Christel Sassou Nguesso. Cotrade’s closure came after pressure from the International Monetary Fund and, on 28 January, the World Bank and IMF announced an agreement that will allow Republic of Congo to reduce its external debt by $1.9bn and benefit from the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative.

The controversial marketing company Congolaise de Trading was the product of what officials call “a past phase” in Congo-B politics. In 1998, soon after returning to power, President Denis Sassou Nguesso discovered that French oil company Elf (since merged into Total) was fraudulently representing its Congo-B production operations.

Jacob Zuma’s government has stuck to a conservative budget and remains committed to further reforms to the state sector, notably of the electricity industry.

More heads could roll following the crisis at Sonatrach as rival factions battle it out. Following the arrests that have savaged state hydrocarbons company Sonatrach’s senior management team, energy and mines minister Chakib Khelil stands at the centre of the ‘perfect storm’ that has engulfed Algerian politics (AE 179/1).

ERHC ENERGY: AIM listing plans; TG WORLD: Loan facility, Niger hopes

The discreet but intense battle between Tullow and Eni over the sale of Heritage Oil’s Uganda acreage, and investigations and mud-slinging around Ghana’s Jubilee field show how politics can severely complicate the oil industry’s approach to new frontiers, write Thalia Griffiths, Our Accra Correspondent and Jon Marks

The government is determined to hold a licensing round by year-end for onshore and offshore fields – as forecast by African Energy (AE 179/19) – in a very difficult political environment.

Investigations into the business dealings of chairman Mohammed Meziane, three influential vice presidents and other senior executives point to corruption at the highest levels of Sonatrach.

Cameroon hopes to license blocks in the potentially oil-rich Bakassi peninsula following settlement of the long-running border dispute with Nigeria.