Search results

The UK’s Department for International Development (DfID) has commissioned a study from the Adam Smith Institute to map the energy resources of the Great Lakes region.

AFDB: Private equity investment; World Bank funds for Cemac institutions

Private equity firm Emerging Capital Partners has announced a $30m investment in Finagestion, a holding company owned by France’s Bouygues that operates water and power production and distribution contracts in Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal.

News that Angola is to set up a sovereign wealth fund marks the latest sign that the country is putting its war-torn past behind it to take its place among the continent’s major economies, writes Kevin Godier. The announcement that Luanda plans a sovereign wealth fund to act as a cushion for future fiscal deficits is the latest sign that booming Angola is becoming a major economic force. The news followed the closure in late October of a long-awaited seven-year, $2.5bn syndicated loan

AFDB: Support for energy fund; Japanese to establish new financing facility

Puntland pioneer Range Resources has taken exception to an article in Melbourne daily The Age that said ruling clans in the territory were linked to the recent upsurge in piracy, including the hijack of the Saudi Aramco-owned supertanker Sirius Star, carrying an estimated $100m worth of oil.

London-based major businessman Jan Kulczyk is looking to increase his Africa interests through Canada’s Loon Energy in which he holds a 39% stake.

Lootah Group has joined the quiet flow of Gulf investors who are buying into fractured Somalia and its constituent parts. Despite the piracy and civil war now making global headlines, some areas are still seen by some as ‘virgin territories’ ripe for exploration and investment.

Cristina Dias was sworn in as São Tomé and Príncipe’s oil minister on 11 November, the fourth person to hold the position since June 2008 and the latest indication of political uncertainty in the island state – which has yet actually to find oil (AE 149/14).

Rumour has it that there is infighting between Petroleum Minister Sameh Fahmy and Finance Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali over tax revenues, while Fahmy is understood to generally not be very popular with any of the ministers. One industry source said: “a lot of the ministers

Tensions between the Ministry of Petroleum and Ministry of Defence continue, mainly over the military’s demand for a greater share of oil revenues, but recent events suggest that a more personal power struggle has emerged.

Reshuffle has brought some new faces onto the energy scene, but old guard remain in key posts

Debate rumbles on over how hard the global financial turmoil will hit Africa, but some things apparently never change. Angola’s Sonangol

For long a significant player in project finance and emerging markets, BNP Paribas (BNPP) has become a bigger force still on the Africa and Middle East energy scene with the acquisition

Five Chinese oil workers taken hostage in South Kordofan have been killed by their captors, according to the Sudanese foreign ministry.