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Goodluck Jonathan’s Presidential Action Committee on Power (PACP) must produce a workable blueprint for the sector before end-May, the acting president told journalists on 21 April. Jonathan has retained the electricity portfolio in his new cabinet, working with minister of state Nuhu Somo Wya in another effort to overcome crippling power problems, which, according to Jonathan, have left Nigeria in a state of “semi-emergency”. Again, the government is focusing on reform within a solid regulatory framework as the key to stable power supplies.

Nigeria’s female ministers have proved themselves a tough and often talented bunch, but new petroleum minister Diezani Allison-Madueke faces a difficult challenge to finalise the Petroleum Industry Bill, which her predecessor, the law’s key architect Rilwanu Lukman,

The New York-based International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) constituted a tribunal in March to hear the arbitration claim brought by Maersk Olie Algeriet against the Peoples’ Democratic Republic of Algeria.

Goodluck Jonathan’s new cabinet is packed with surprises that the acting president hopes will cement his authority and speed up government business.

Following three months when little business has been transacted at Sonatrach and foreign investors have turned away, there are indications that the Algerian authorities want to mitigate the collateral damage inflicted by the anti-corruption investigation and political in-fighting, write Jon Marks, John Hamilton and correspondents in Algiers

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.

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 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.

Oil sector financiers are anticipating another busy year, led by the need for new money in the hydrocarbons sectors in East and West Africa, writes Kevin Godier

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).

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