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With oil field developments proceeding at pace, the Kampala government has signalled its intention to play a more robust role in economic management, with plans to renationalise the electricity distribution network and take an expensive majority stake in the Kabalega refinery development. Meanwhile financing for the Eacop pipeline is expected to close soon, with Chinese lenders stepping in where western financiers have refused to go, writes Marc Howard, recently in Kampala and Hoima.

Nigeria’s 650,000 b/d Dangote refinery appears to have missed its expected start date in October, reportedly due to crude supply issues. However, Nigeria’s downstream sector will receive another boost with the expected return to service of the 110,000 b/d Kaduna refinery in 2024, writes James Gavin.

Macky Sall has installed trusted ally Antoine Félix Abdoulaye Diome as oil and energy minister in a move said to be designed to extend outgoing president’s influence over the sector even after he leaves office, writes Waly Dione Faye.

African liquified natural gas (LNG) projects will emerge as a major investment theme, consultancy WoodMackenzie has predicted, but the oil sector is likely to struggle to offset declines at maturing assets.

Seven plaintiffs have filed a criminal complaint with Paris prosecutors against TotalEnergies, accusing the French major of negligence and indirect manslaughter during the March 2021 attack on Palma by Islamist insurgents.

Reports suggest Italian major Eni expects to reach a final investment decision (FID) for its Coral Norte floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) plant by June 2024. The 3.4m t/yr Coral Sul development dispatched its first LNG cargo last November, supplied by six subsea wells drilled in the Coral field.

BP has awarded Allseas the contract to complete the subsea pipelay scope for its Greater Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, after previous contractor McDermott International was reportedly unable to complete its planned work on the project.

Toufik Hakkar was removed from his position as president director-general (PDG) of Sonatrach on 2 October, as President Abdelmadjid Tebboune appointed yet another official who has had decades of jobs in and around the national oil company, Rachid Hachichi, for a second stint in the job. 

Momentum continues to build for the two large export-oriented liquefied natural gas projects on Mozambique’s Afungi peninsula. TotalEnergies has confirmed longstanding speculation that work will resume at Mozambique LNG this year, while ExxonMobil is aiming for a final investment decision on its Rovuma project in 2025 – underpinned by the continuing role of foreign security forces in Cabo Delgado, writes Marc Howard.

Discussing progress and slippages in its major development offshore Mauritania and Senegal, BP says its Greater Tortue Ahmeyim project is focused on a ‘sustainable’ production start, rather than racing to dispatch its first LNG cargo. The British supermajor is also focused on completing phase one of the $4.8bn cross-border development prior to advancing with Phase II work, which it said would provide confidence to Dakar, Nouakchott and investors alike

Equatorial Guinea is seeing more dynamism in its upstream oil and gas sector, with independents planning drilling programmes across a number of blocks. Further phases are being planned for the Regional Gas Mega Hub project, amid renewed interest in natural gas resources, writes James Gavin.

National oil company Sonatrach has started natural gas production at three Gourar Basin fields, as part of the second phase of its South West Gas Project (SWGP).

Egyptians are hoping for cooler weather and with it the end of severe rolling power outages which have caused difficulties throughout the summer. However, the social and economic legacies of the electricity supply crisis will outlast the ferocious Mediterranean heatwave, which has provided the government’s only – but far from satisfying – explanation for why the outages happened, writes John Hamilton.

Nigeria’s Dangote refinery will receive its first crude cargo by the start of October and should be producing up to 370,000 b/d of diesel and jet fuel later that month, according to comments by group executive director Devakumar Edwin to S&P Global Commodity Insights published on 18 September.

Former Lundin Energy executives denied charges of any complicity in Sudanese atrocities as their trial opened in early September, with hearings in the Stockholm District Court that fit into a growing trend for prosecutors to target companies and senior personnel for war crimes and similar outrages, no matter when they were committed, writes Chris Stephen in Stockholm.