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Tanzania has seen a new development impetus since John Pombe Magufuli took over as president on 5 November following October’s elections. His government is in talks with Uganda and Total to route a planned oil export pipeline from Lake Albert to Tanga port, instead of the route to the Kenyan coast favoured by Nairobi and Tullow Oil, and in January, Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) finalised the purchase of 2m hectares of land at Mchinga Bay, north of Lindi, for a planned two-train liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal, enabling work to go ahead on developing the project.

President Macky Sall on 14 March formally inaugurated the 70MW Tobene independent power project (IPP), developed by Melec PowerGen with funding from the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The plant, developed on a build-own-operate basis, will run initially on heavy fuel oil (HFO) but is designed for easy conversion to gas. IFC spokeswoman Zibu Sibanda told African Energy that gas supply could eventually come from recent discoveries offshore Mauritania and Senegal and, in the meantime, the country was considering importing LNG to a floating regasification unit.

Quantum Power on 4 March signed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with Micoperi, part of Protan Group, for the Tema liquefied natural gas (LNG) import, storage, regasification and delivery scheme. The project has the ambitious aim of being operational by year-end, providing enough gas to generate 2,000MW. Quantum Power signed heads of terms for the construction and operation of the project with Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) in February. The LNG project is the latest to announce progress, with Ghana 1000 and the West African Gas Ltd (WAGL) Tema schemes also taking shape.

Eni is powering ahead with appraisal of the Zohr gas discovery, with a successful production test of the Zohr 2X well and plans for three more wells this year. The well delivered up to 44mcf/d constrained by surface facilities, and is expected to have a production capacity of up to 250mcf/d. The well, the first appraisal well of the August 2015 Zohr discovery, was located 1.5km south-east of Zohr 1X and downdip of it, on the flank of the structure, in a water depth of 1,460 metres. Eni said the appraisal programme envisaged a further three wells this year.

Minister of state for petroleum resources and group managing director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Ibe Kachikwu has said that NNPC is to be unbundled into 30 companies in the weeks ahead as part of efforts to reform the national oil company. “For the first time, we are unbundling the subset of the NNPC to 30 independent companies with their own managing directors. Titles like group executive directors are going to disappear and in their place you are going to have chief executive officers and they are going to take responsibilities for their titles.

Italy’s Eni has announced a discovery on the Nooros East exploration prospect on the Abu Madi West licence and completed the Zohr 2X appraisal well on the Shorouk Block. The Nidoco North 1X well was drilled as a deviated well from the shore into the shallow offshore Nooros East field and encountered more than 43 metres of gas and condensates in sandstone layers of Messinian age. The well will be brought into production by end-March, enabling the Nooros area, which started production in September 2015 just two months after the initial Nooros discovery, to raise output to 45,000 boe/d.

Key public and private sector parties have signed a cooperation agreement for the construction of an estimated $6bn natural gas pipeline from northern Mozambique to Gauteng, South Africa. The main signatories are Mozambique’s Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH), Profin Consulting, SacOil Holdings and pipeline construction company China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau (CPP).SacOil chief executive Dr Thabo Kgogo described the agreement as a key milestone in the development of the pipeline and distribution project.

The United Arab Emirates’ Dodsal Group has discovered 2.17tcf of gas reserves in the Ruvu Basin Block west of Dar es Salaam, according to local media reports. Dodsal acquired the 15,300km2 licence in November 2007. Energy and minerals minister Sospeter Muhongo was quoted as saying the discovery was made last July, but the announcement was delayed because Tanzania was going through a political transition and the Oil and Gas Revenues Management Act 2015, which gives the minister powers to make such a declaration, was not yet operational.

Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation and IHI Corporation on 17 February signed a turnkey engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract with Electricidade de Mozambique (EDM) for a 110MW gas-fired combined-cycle power plant in Maputo. Sumitomo said this would be the country’s first gas-fired combined-cycle power plant and, when completed, would meet about 20% of domestic power demand. The plant aims to stabilise power supply to Maputo and the south, which is not connected to the main transmission infrastructure running from Cahora Bassa.

Djibouti President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh on 3 March presided over a foundation stone-laying ceremony for a gas pipeline, liquefaction plant and export terminal at Damerjog to enable Ethiopia to export gas to China. An official statement said the new 700km pipeline will transport up to 12bcm/yr of natural gas from Ethiopia to Djibouti. The liquefaction plant will have capacity to produce up to 10m t/yr of liquefied natural gas.

Activist shareholder Worldview EHS International Master Fund’s 4 March petition to put Petroceltic International into examineeship – the Republic of Ireland’s approximate equivalent to Chapter 11 in the United States – immediately followed the rejection of its offer to buy the whole company for 3p per share – a substantial discount even on the currently much-reduced share price.

The Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy has invited expressions of interest from consultants to supply transaction advisory services to help it establish a liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry. The project is being financed from the World Bank’s Mining and Gas Technical Assistance Project. The consulting services include advice and guidance regarding the contractual and commercial aspects of the LNG value chain; developing an economic/financial model of the LNG value chain; modelling the impact of the technical, commercial and contractual negotiation variables during the negotiation; advice and guidance to the government’s LNG negotiating team on economic and financial modelling during the negotiations.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources has given its approval for the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company to grant Eni the Zohr Development Lease, which allows for the development of the Zohr gas field in the offshore Shorouk Concession. Eni’s ambitious development plan envisages the start of production by the end of 2017, just two years after the discovery, with a progressive ramp-up to reach a volume of about 75mcf/d by 2019. “The quick realisation of such a large project will be possible through cooperation with Petrojet, Enppi and Saipem contractors, who have always contributed to the success of Eni’s development activities in Egypt,” Eni said.

State-owned Riaba Fertilizers Limited has awarded the engineering, procurement and construction contract for a new petrochemicals complex to a Chinese consortium led by East China Engineering Science and Technology Company (ECEC). The complex, planned to be built at Riaba, on the south-east coast of Bioko Island, will comprise an ammonia and urea plant with production capacity of 1.5m t/yr. A gas supply agreement for gas from fields east of Bioko Island is in place with the Block O and I operator Noble Energy and its partners Gunvor, Atlas Petroleum International and Glencore. Pre-front end engineering design work has been completed by WorleyParsons.

The first independent power project (IPP) in Egypt since 1999 is likely to be a 250MW wind project in the Gulf of Suez which was awarded to France’s Engie (formerly GDF Suez) last year and will be formally signed in March. Next in line is likely to be the first 1,200MW phase of Benchmark Power International (BPI)’s combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) project in the Nile Delta, which is not far from financial close after securing backing from Abraaj Group with the support of the African Development Bank (AfDB, see Power).