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Symbion Power Lake Kivu Ltd on 8 December signed a 25-year power purchase agreement with state utility Rwanda Energy Group for a 50MW methane gas-to-power project on Lake Kivu. A detailed feasibility study and front-end engineering design have been completed for the project, which will now proceed to detailed design, procurement and permiting.The agreement comes as the KivuWatt project, developed by the US’ ContourGlobal, has begun tests for commissioning of its first 25MW after being connected to the grid.

London-based Genesis Energy has signed a power purchase agreement for gas power plants with combined capacity of 360MW. Speaking to African Energy on the sidelines of the African Global Investment Summit in London on 2 December, chairman and chief executive Akinwole Omoboriowo said the first phase would involve a 100MW on-grid power plant using General Electric units and a 20MW distributed power plant using engines provided by the UK’s Cummins Cogen, part of the US-based Cummins Group.

Ophir Energy has signed heads of agreements (HoAs) for liquefied natural gas (LNG) offtake from the Fortuna floating LNG project with six counterparties, all of whom are established LNG buyers in European and Asian markets.The company said it had revised down its estimate of the gross capital expenditure required to first gas from $800m to $600m, based on recent input from the upstream front-end engineering design (FEED) work.

Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST) has given Penspen a contract to conduct a front-end engineering design study for further development of the Ghana Natural Gas Interconnected Transmission System. BOST, as holder of Ghana’s natural gas transmission utility licence, has a mandate to operate, maintain and further develop a country-wide gas transmission network as part of Ghana’s national agenda to exploit gas as an efficient and cost-effective means of augmenting power supply. The first phase of this build-out will be the addition of approximately 750km of pipeline from Aboadze to Tema, and from Prestea to Buipe, via Kumasi.

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, Eni and their partners have signed a unitisation and unit operating agreement (UUOA) for the development of massive natural gas resources that straddle Anadarko-operated Area 1 and Eni’s Area 4. Under the terms of the UUOA and previously announced Decree Law, the Prosperidade and Mamba reservoirs will be developed in a separate but co-ordinated manner by the two operators until 24tcf of natural gas reserves, 12tcf from each area, have been developed. All subsequent development of the unit will be pursued jointly by the Area 1 and Area 4 concessionaires through a joint-venture operator (50:50 Anadarko and Eni).

Nigeria’s Oando plc has won shareholder approval to sell its gas and power, downstream, and energy services businesses. A shareholders meeting on 7 December approved plans for a rights issue to raise up to N80bn ($402m). Oando paid $1.5bn to acquire ConocoPhillips’ Nigerian operations in July 2014 in a bid to expand its upstream operations, but its cashflow has been hard hit by the lower oil price. The company, which is listed in Johannesburg and Lagos, while its upstream arm Oando Energy Resources is listed in Toronto, also won approval to issue N40bn of shares from its unissued share capital to swap debt for equity under agreements with two shareholders, Ocean and Oil Development Partners and QPR Limited.

Nigerian joint venture West African Gas Ltd has given Golar LNG Ltd a firm contract for a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) for an LNG import scheme at Tema port. WAGL is jointly owned by subsidiaries of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation with 60% and Sahara Group subsidiary Sahara Energy Resource Ltd with 40%. Golar said the FSRU would be moored inside the port at a new jetty being built by WAGL. Start-up is planned for Q2 2016, and the contract will be for an initial period of five years, with the option for WAGL to extend for a further five years.

Nigeria’s Sirius Group has given Penspen a contract to conduct an engineering study for the monetisation of gas reserves from offshore oilfields in the Niger Delta. A key element of this agreement is the development of gas reserves in OML 122.The study is being conducted as part of Project Dawn, a three-year development project worth $1.2bn that includes the construction of a pipeline network to deliver natural gas to the existing Escravos-Lagos Pipeline System. Project Dawn is expected to supply 250mcf/d of natural gas under a gas sales and purchase agreement between Sirius Oilfield Support Services and Nigerian Gas Company, a subsidiary of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SNH) and Perenco have announced a final investment decision for an eight-year floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) project to sell gas to Russia’s Gazprom. On 27 November, Gazprom Marketing & Trading Singapore, Perenco Cameroon, Golar Hilli and Golar Cameroon signed agreements for the project, based on the allocation of 500bcf of natural gas reserves to be supplied by SNH and Perenco from the Sanaga Sud and Ebome fields. Golar will own and operate the Hilli vessel which is under conversion at the Keppel shipyard in Singapore. First LNG deliveries from the terminal are expected to start in H2 2017.

The UK’s Cummins Cogeneration Ltd and Ghanaian partner Wuta Energy have signed a power purchase agreement for a 300MW gas power plant at Beyin, in the Western Region. Cummins told African Energy that all critical gas and electricity agreements had been signed and that work was under way to clear the project site. Cummins and Wuta own the project, which is being developed as an independent power producer. It is being privately financed by Cummins Cogeneration with some debt from commercial lenders. A deal to bring in a UK-based engineering, procurement and construction contractor is being finalised.

A large number of power sector deals in recent weeks point to the way ahead for Egypt’s electricity sector and indicate how risk will be shared between the government, financiers and developers. The Ministry of Electricity plans to include nuclear as well as gas and renewables in its long-term energy mix and has received potent backing from governments, multilateral lenders, banks and private sector developers, none of them so far dissuaded by the political risks associated with terrorism or the country’s still-fragile finances.

International oil companies (IOCs) are considering several routes in parallel to exploit offshore gas resources in the eastern Mediterranean. It is too early to say which route or routes will be chosen, although at least two broad proposals for uniting the production from fields in Egyptian, Cypriot and Israeli waters are on the table. Connections to existing Egyptian infrastructure currently dominate the discussions as it is both the strongest domestic market and the easiest route for potential exports. Eni, BG Group and Israel’s Delek Group have all signalled their enthusiasm for projects that will be dependent on Egyptian offtakers.

Victoria Oil & Gas (VOG) plans exploration drilling next year to supply a planned expansion of its Logbaba gas processing plant in Douala. The company appointed a new management team in 2013 after significant cost overruns and has been focusing on transforming itself from an exploration and production company to an integrated utility company. A key milestone was a take-or-pay contract signed with power utility Eneo in December 2014 to supply the 20MW Bassa and 30MW Logbaba power stations.

Wentworth Resources has said that the Mnazi Bay joint venture partners have received a landmark first payment of $3.8m from Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation for gas deliveries to the new pipeline in October. The Oslo and AIM-listed company said gas was being supplied to the existing Ubungo-II and Symbion power plants in Dar es Salaam as well as to the new Kinyerezi-I power plant.

Kosmos Energy has found more gas offshore Mauritania with its Marsouin-1 exploration well in the northern part of Block C-8. Marsouin-1 encountered at least 70 metres of net gas pay in Upper and Lower Cenomanian intervals comprised of excellent quality reservoir sands. The well was drilled in nearly 2,400 metres of water, 60km north of the basin-opening Tortue-1 gas discovery, now renamed Ahmeyim. “Marsouin-1 is our second major discovery of 2015, extending our 100% success rate in the outboard Cretaceous petroleum system offshore Mauritania and Senegal.