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Well-connected Moroccan interests have taken another big stake in a prospective natural gas play, with Al-Mada’s mining subsidiary Managem paying up to $45.2m for stakes in the Tendrara natural gas concession and nearby Grand Tendrara and Anoual permits.

Despite the first cargo being lifted from the Niger-Benin Export Pipeline (NBEP) sea terminal in May, cross-border relations have continued to sour, after Benin arrested five Nigerien pipeline employees and a second crude loading was aborted, while insurgents have attacked the pipeline in Niger, writes Virgile Ahissou in Cotonou with Marc Howard.

Anglo-French independent Perenco has bought into the leading floating LNG developer, building on their existing Cameroon partnership.

The increasingly assertive African Development Bank’s support for the proposed multi-user Liberty infrastructure corridor would enable production from HPX’s Mount Nimba iron ore play and increase demand for power from regional hydroelectric schemes. It could also lead to adjacent iron ore developments in Liberia, which is strongly backing the scheme, writes Marc Howard.

State-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) has signed a project development agreement (PDA) with Norway’s Golar LNG for a floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) project offshore the Niger Delta. NNPC said the development would “monetise vast proven gas reserves from shallow water resources”.

Dakar’s long wait for one of its major upstream projects to reach commercial operations is over, with crude flowing at the Woodside Energy-operated Sangomar field and exports to follow.

Nigeria’s 19-block licensing round announced in May includes seven blocks that were last on offer in the aborted 2022 mini-bid round. The round aims to attract both local and international interest to what is mostly offshore acreage, writes James Gavin.

A stronger sense is emerging that the federal government in Abuja is finally prioritising asset transfers, despite state-owned Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC)’s opposition to key deals – notably ExxonMobil’s proposed sale of shallow water assets to Seplat Energy.

The long-awaited arrival of the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim scheme’s FPSO vessel  is welcome news for the LNG megaproject, having twice been delayed by external events.

Future supply of feedstock for the 300MW West African Energy (WAE) Cap des Biches plant and the other new gas-to-power (GTP) capacity planned by state utility Société Nationale d’Electricité du Sénégal (Senelec) remains contingent on infrastructure development. The most promising source of gas is the offshore 25tcf Yakaar-Teranga (Y-T) project, now operated by US independent Kosmos Energy following BP’s exit last year.

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission said international oil companies will be pressed to supply the privately-owned Dangote refinery, rather than just focusing on the export market.

Voters are going to the polls earlier than expected, on 7 September, with incumbent President Abdelmadjid Tebboune as the ruling establishment’s candidate, having overcome some powerful décideur (decision-maker) factions’ doubts about his credentials to drive Algeria forwards in a second term. Able to pull the levers of presidential power, Tebboune will seek to present a record of solid first term achievement, although many of his electorate know that results have been mixed, at best, especially given the buffer of higher oil and gas prices his administration has enjoyed. Tebboune has much to prove.

Informed sources have told African Energy that West African Energy’s gas-to-power plant is expected to be commissioned around the turn of the year, but questions remain over when the natural gas feedstock will be available and whether the new Pastef administration may reassess details of the directly-awarded contract, write Waly Dione Faye and Marc Howard.

Senegal President Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s administration has made its inaugural round of senior energy sector appointments, following the 24 March election. The new appointments have a technocrat tinge that may reassure investors – and, indeed, underline the technocratic backgrounds of Faye and his influential Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko, both of whom were tax inspectors prior to entering politics.

Nigeria Stock Exchange (NGX)-listed conglomerate Transcorp Group’s two generating company subsidiaries already provide some 20% of Nigeria’s grid capacity. Now one of them, Transafam Power, is looking to increase output by 35% at many of its units while the other, Transcorp Power, is eyeing up a possible utility-scale solar plant.