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Energy minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson has set out a timetable for the gas independent power producer (IPP) procurement programme as well as plans for legislative changes to bring gas midstream fully under the purview of the Department of Energy (DoE). The programme has generated considerable interest from upstream, midstream and IPP developers but the details remain to be ironed out. Speaking at the Oil and Gas Council conference in Cape Town on 17 May, Joemat-Pettersson said a preliminary information memorandum would be released in Q3 2016.

Cameroon may be the Central African Economic and Monetary Community’s largest economy, but it remains a political and commercial enigma. Decision-making can move at a glacial pace, in a political system dominated by President Paul Biya, whose apparent aspirations to be re-elected to a fourth seven-year term are a cause of concern, not least for a youthful population living in poor economic and social circumstances. However, progress has been made in delivering services, reflected in the energy sector by national utility Eneo, owned by UK private equity investor Actis, and Victoria Oil and Gas’s growing business selling gas to industry and consumers in commercial hub Douala.

Tanzania plans to start construction this year of a fertiliser plant in the south of the country, using some of its newly discovered reserves of natural gas. “The plant, which will become Africa’s biggest fertiliser producer, will have a capacity of producing 3,800 t/d and will employ up to 5,000 people,” a presidency statement said.

Backed by the US Power Africa initiative, Endeavor Energy has four projects close to sanction in West Africa aiming to fill short to medium-term demand gaps with a mix of imported and domestic gas and heavy fuel oil. Two of the projects are in Ghana, where there is urgent need for new capacity. The 344MW Bridge Power fast deployment scheme at Tema aims to tackle the problem of limited gas supply in Ghana’s eastern hub by using imported liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Chief executive Sean Long told African Energy in an interview that LPG was cheaper than crude oil or diesel in the short term and the plant was designed to switch to natural gas once it became available, whether via the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP) or Ghanaian domestic gas.

The government is planning a new law that will separate parts of its regulations governing oil and gas from legislation governing the mining industry. “The plan involves separating from the mineral regulatory framework those elements that relate to the petroleum value chain,” energy minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson told parliament in a budget speech on 11 May. Proposed amendments to the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act had been criticised by the oil and gas industry for attempting to treat mining and hydrocarbons exploration in the same way.

The government will officially launch a new oil and gas licensing round, known as EG Ronda 2016, at the Africa Oil & Power conference on 6-7 June at the Westin Hotel in Cape Town. The Ministry of Mines, Industry and Energy said in October 2015 that it planned a bid round this year, offering all remaining deep and ultra-deepwater blocks. The last bid round in 2014 offered all the country’s open acreage, with four blocks next to existing discoveries offered for direct negotiation and the others for competitive bidding.

The resolution of a blockade at the Marsa al-Harigah terminal in mid-May averted what many expected to be a highly damaging financial and political crisis. However, it leaves unresolved the main grievances that provoked leaders in Cyrenaica to shut the port and deprive Tripoli of revenues earned from the sale of crude produced in the east of the country. The continued political disagreements and the expected delivery by a Russian company of LYD4bn worth of bank notes to the Benghazi-based administration will provide fertile ground for further disputes over both money and oil.

The North Umbarka Block lies on the Mediterranean coast just north of the Umbarka and Khalda fields operated by Apache Oil Corporation through its Khalda joint venture with Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC). Five concessionaires have previously held parts of the block and between them drilled 34 wells between 1967 and 2014, all of which were temporarily or permanently abandoned. A total of nine wells produced gas or oil shows or were deemed worthy of further study. The concessionaires also carried out five 2D and 3D seismic surveys over the past 23 years. These include Vegas (1993), IEOC (1998) Shell (1998), Apache (2007) and Hellenic (2008).

Wentworth Resources is to take over as operator of the Rovuma Onshore concession and carry out appraisal of the Tembo-1 gas discovery. The company said it had applied to the Ministry of Energy and Minerals for approval of a proposed appraisal programme for Tembo-1, and to increase its holding in Rovuma Onshore from 11.59% to 85%.Current operator Anadarko, Maurel & Prom and Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production have all notified the National Petroleum Institute (INP) of the relinquishment of their interests in the block with effect from 31 August 2015.

The much-anticipated national LNG development plan is going ahead with a strengthened advisory team and revised targets, working to new bid deadlines, which take account of the ambitious integrated project’s scale and follow officials’ analysis of input from potential investors. Some of the heads of state who have lobbied King Mohammed VI, and among the 100-plus potential liquefied natural gas (LNG) suppliers who have lined up to see Ministry of Energy, Mining, Water and Environment senior adviser Abdellaziz El Gamah, may find it worth the wait: the long-term quantity of gas required at the new Jorf Lasfar terminal is now expected to be 10bcm/yr, double the original forecast.

Kosmos Energy has announced another gas discovery with the Teranga-1 exploration well in Senegal’s Cayar Offshore Profond Block. The well was drilled to a total depth of 4,485 metres in nearly 1,800 metres of water and encountered 31 metres of gas pay in the Lower Cenomanian objective. “Well results confirm that a prolific inboard gas fairway extends approximately 200km from the Marsouin-1 well in Mauritania through the Greater Tortue area on the maritime boundary to the Teranga-1 well in Senegal,” Kosmos said.

Power, works and housing minister Babatunde Fashola, one of Nigeria’s two so-called super-ministers, has outlined a gradual and holistic approach to resolving the power crisis. Speaking in Lagos on 6 May, Fashola said the focus would be on thorough maintenance and rehabilitation of existing plants, improving the gas supply, and unlocking long-delayed projects. “We have resolved the framework for ultimately licensing over a dozen prospectors to generate over 1,000MW of solar energy,” he said, adding that the Ministry of Solid Minerals had been providing data on coal deposits for a possible coal power programme.

On 18 April, President John Dramani Mahama inaugurated the first unit of the Sunon Asogli gas plant expansion, which will add 180MW to the grid initially and 360MW once it is converted to combined-cycle operation. Phase one of the Asogli power plant was completed in 2010 but has had problems with unreliable gas supply from the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP).

Egypt and Saudi Arabia signed several energy sector agreements during the recent visit to Cairo of King Salman Bin Abdelaziz. Most importantly, Egyptian minister of international cooperation Dr Sahar Nasr and Saudi Fund for Development chairman Dr Ibrahim Assaf signed a $100m financing agreement for the Cairo West power plant. This 650MW gas-fired steam turbine plant is being developed by the state-owned Egyptian Electricity Holding Company at an estimated cost of $700m.

Victoria Oil & Gas subsidiary Gaz du Cameroun (GDC) is preparing to drill two additional wells into the onshore Logbaba field and has signed a rig contract with Savannah Oil Services Cameroon. Drilling is planned to start in late Q2 and complete by year-end. VOG described the budget for the two-well drilling programme as “less than $40m, significantly lower than initial estimates made in 2015”.