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Tullow Oil’s Ghana unit has filed for arbitration in the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) over two tax bills amounting to $387m received from the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), the London AIM-listed independent said on 14 February. This is in addition to a separate existing tax dispute between Tullow and the authorities in Accra.

South Africa’s political and electricity supply industry (ESI) crisis has entered a new phase, after embattled President Cyril Ramaphosa was compelled to declare a National State of Disaster, as pressure intensifies on ruling African National Congress (ANC) bureaucrats to end the long-enduring energy catastrophe, which has shaved percentage points off growth.

The reshuffle and apparent downgrade of oil minister Gabriel Obiang Lima has brought a close aide of President Teodoro Obiang, former national company GEPetrol head Antonio Oburu Ondo, into the Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons. The controversial new minister is also close to Obiang’s favoured son Teodorin, who is ever more strongly placed to eventually replace the octogenarian president in Equatorial Guinea’s most critical succession battle.

Equatorial Guinea’s high-profile oil minister Gabriel Mbaga Obiang Lima has been reshuffled by his father, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, to take over as finance, economy and planning minister. He has been replaced at the Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons by former national company GEPetrol head Antonio Oburu Ondo. International partners will be looking to see if there is any change in hydrocarbons policy – and political analysts whether it points to Gabriel having any better chance of leapfrogging his controversial but favoured half-brother Teodorin to eventually replace his father.

The economy, under autocrat-populist President Kaïs Saïed’s rule, is in a long and potentially accelerating decline, while the population is ever more alienated from the political system. These hard realities are reflected in everything from simmering popular anger over slumping living standards to a faltering oil and gas industry and unfulfilled plans to deliver big renewable energy projects, write Jon Marks, John Hamilton and James Gavin.

Mired in the global cost of living crisis, and with a system of state support that is still only partially reformed, subsidies for liquid petroleum gas (LPG) continue to cost Morocco dearly. African Energy examines the pressures facing the Moroccan government following “a confluence of negative shocks” in 2022.

The government’s dissolution of Power Market Ltd (PML) signals further disarray in Malawi’s power sector. Some insiders and developers who spoke to African Energy didn’t lament the single-buyer’s demise, but serious macroeconomic difficulties pose severe challenges for an industry as the power crisis continues, writes Marc Howard.

Egypt has a good claim to have been the most dynamic of all African countries in 2022, but 2023 may be its year of reckoning. The currency crisis now ravaging the economy could bring President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s futuristic edifice of renewables, green hydrogen (GH2), new cities, real estate, electric trains, sea water desalination and social infrastructure crashing down unless he can keep on side a wide coalition. This includes the IMF and Gulf monarchies which are Egypt’s largest creditors, the military, whose economic prerogatives must now be curtailed, a hard-pressed population, and international business partners.

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s re-election as African National Congress leader, and with it the right to lead the governing ANC in the 2024 presidential elections, has deep implications for the South African energy industry and wider economy – some of them very negative, as Eskom struggles with a legacy of corruption in a public sector prone to mismanagement, write Tonderayi Mukeredzi with Jon Marks.

Buoyed by Eni’s success at bringing new upstream projects on stream at pace and the changed outlook for investment and exports as the war in Ukraine approaches its first anniversary, Sonatrach is aiming for a rise in activity to boost output in North Africa’s gas giant, write James Gavin and Jon Marks

Plagued by acute shortages of electricity, Zambia and Zimbabwe have turned to independent power producers (IPPs) to cover the shortfalls in power supply.

Algerian utility Sonelgaz is promoting plans to export more power to its neighbours in North Africa and across the Mediterranean to Europe.

Sultan Al-Jaber’s appointment to preside over the end-year COP28 climate talks in Dubai brings a storied United Arab Emirates official to global prominence. His leadership in renewables developer Masdar and other UAE sustainable energy initiatives is welcome, but Al-Jaber’s powerful role as head of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) has added to climate campaigners’ fears that big hydrocarbons producers will take the COP process even further off track, write Jon Marks and African Energy staff.

The London AIM-listed independent Savannah Energy has offered to pay some $1.25bn to take over Petronas’s assets in South Sudan, but conditions on the ground remain challenging for exploration and production firms seeking to enter the upstream in Africa’s troubled newest state, writes James Gavin.

A realignment of global alliances is ever more apparent as the first anniversary of Russia’s attempted conquest of Ukraine approaches and global power and wealth seem to concentrate in ever fewer hands. This has been seen in the solidarity among members of the Opec+ oil exporters’ alliance, in which long western-aligned Saudi Arabia and President Vladimir Putin’s Russia remain the driving forces.