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After outlining contingent support for Mozambican natural gas projects, the World Bank has told African Energy it may back other projects on a ‘selective basis’, with criteria that could favour African markets, writes Marc Howard.

US player West Africa LNG has a $300m deal to build a liquefied natural gas import and distribution terminal to supply gas to power-hungry miners and to-be-developed alumina processing facilities in a country where previous efforts to expand the grid have faltered and significant additional generation capacity will be required to develop alumina processing at scale. Chaired by a former US ambassador to Guinea, WALNG has yet to expand on financing and other critical details.

Tlou Energy said on 15 March it had started the next stage of its Lesedi gas-to-power (GTP) project in Botswana, with drilling commencing on a core-hole ahead of the spudding of an additional gas production well.

After years of silence from operator ExxonMobil, a request for expressions of interest (EoI) appears to confirm industry rumours that the US major wanted to shift the Rovuma LNG (Area 4) project's onshore plant towards a modular approach, which would reduce security risks.

Plans by Eskom to build a 3GW CCGT plant at Richards Bay may yet go ahead, following reports that regulator Nersa had reversed its previous opposition to the scheme. A Nersa spokesman told African Energy the energy regulator had yet to make a final decision on the matter.

Political, social and legal opposition to Eni’s multi-billion-dollar upstream gas development deal is driven by an alliance of fief holders who may not be able to stop the deal, but could make it harder and more expensive to complete. The opposition reflects continuing dysfunction, raising the prospect of more blockades and disruption, writes Mohamed Eljarh*, with John Hamilton.

Algerian state giant Sonatrach has been courting international oil companies to capitalise on the potential to ramp up deliveries to Europe, but African Energy’s soundings suggest there are plenty of reasons for caution, despite the improved investment climate since hydrocarbons sector reforms were unveiled.

Energy trader BB Energy Group has made an early-stage minority investment in Kigali-based developer GasMeth Energy Global and its project to extract, process and distribute methane gas from the Rwandan side of Lake Kivu.

Negotiations with Shell and Equinor for the estimated $30bn Lindi liquefied natural gas (LNG) project (also known as Tanzania LNG) have been completed, and contracts are being written up, energy minister January Makamba said on 6 March.

Early years electricity demand at the Magnis Energy Technologies group’s Nachu graphite production plant will be around 24MW, with mining and processing operations expected require some 135,000 MWh/yr.

Marathon Oil Corporation has been talking up plans for its 3.7m t/yr Punta Europa liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant on Bioko Island, where it is looking to generate $1bn in profits in 2024, when it can drop the US Henry Hub indexation that has curbed its earnings potential.

West Africa’s total installed generation capacity could reach 43GW by 2027 from 31GW at end-2021, according to African Energy Live Data’s latest analysis, with thermal, hydropower and other renewable projects lining up. But many of these capacity additions are planned for Nigeria, where results may be patchy, as it is already hard to dispatch power from existing plants to an inadequate grid.

Privately-held Aqua Power’s power investments focus exclusively on baseload provision and projects with a cost of below $0.10/kWh. Above this level “hard questions need to be asked”, as it implied costs were being subsidised by the utility and, by proxy, taxpayers, executive director Gachao Kiuna told African Energy.

Developer Aqua Power is seeking to use its 45MW gas-to-power plant in Mtwara, Tanzania to supply troubled Cabo Delgado province in northern Mozambique, in an ambitious privately-financed plan that would build a 220km high-voltage transmission line and substation in Palma, writes Marc Howard.

African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank)’s impact development arm the Fund for Export Development in Africa (Feda) has concluded the purchase of 5% of Lagos-based electricity generator Geregu Power. The deal is the latest example of how the Cairo-based trade bank has morphed from being a staid institution devoted to trade finance in Africa to a much more punchy outfit.