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National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor) is confident that the Kudu gas-to-power project will go ahead, despite doubts about the cost expressed by finance minister Calle Schlettwein. Namcor managing director Immanuel Mulunga told Global Pacific & Partners’ Africa Upstream conference the partners were aiming for upstream and downstream financial close in Q1 2016. Norway’s BW Offshore has been selected as upstream technical partner, taking over Tullow Oil’s 31% stake, while Italy’s Saipem has been selected for the subsea and pipelines element. Mulunga said discussions were progressing well, and Namcor expected to finalise contracts before the end of March 2016.

Libyan oil executives presented three major upstream project proposals to IRN’s New Libya Oil & Gas Forum in London in mid-October. These were Mellitah Oil & Gas (MOG)’s offshore Bahr Essalam development, Nafusa Oil Operations’ onshore Ghadames Basin development, and Arabian Gulf Oil Company (Agoco)’s plans for developing existing producing and non-producing fields. The country’s disastrous budget and security situation means that, in theory, none of these proposals should have any chance of advancing. National Oil Corporation (NOC) chairman Mustafa Sanalla confirmed that all exploration programmes had been cancelled for 2015 because there is no budget for them.

Morocco is in the final months of discussions with governments and gas-producing companies over long-term LNG import contracts. Senior adviser to the minister of energy, mining, water and the environment Abdellaziz El Gamah told the Morocco Energy Exchange (organised by African Energy’s publisher Cross-border Information) in Edinburgh on 12 October that the ministry had held “more than 100 meetings with international suppliers” who have submitted non-binding offers. “We project to short-list the international suppliers in December,” he said. The short list is expected to contain the names of three to six potential suppliers.

Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (Egas) has awarded four out of the 12 blocks in its most recent licensing round, with BP taking the largest share and Eni, Edison and Total also participating. The results of the round suggest that a trio of key players in the Egyptian offshore are building up large portfolios of acreage in strategic locations. The new licences are located between the coast and the large deep offshore blocks previously awarded to BP, Eni and Edison, including Eni’s Shorouk, where it made its large Zohr discovery in September.

BP and Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company joint venture Pharaonic Petroleum has given Subsea 7 a contract for the development of the East Nile Delta Phase 3 project, involving the Taurt and Hapy field developments. The project scope includes installation engineering, procurement and fabrication of rigid spools, and installation of pipeline, umbilical and subsea structures to develop the resources from two wells, including 8km of umbilicals and pipeline. The field development will be at depths of 80 to 90 metres. Fabrication of spools will be carried out at Petrojet’s yard in Egypt. Offshore installation is scheduled to start in Q4 2015 using the Subsea 7 vessels Rockwater 2 and Seven Borealis.

Operator Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company on 5 October announced the start-up of production from the Bonga Phase 3 project. Bonga Phase 3 is an expansion of the Bonga Main development, with peak production expected to be some 50,000 boe/d. This will be transported through existing pipelines to the Bonga floating production, storage and offloading facility, which has the capacity to produce more than 200,000 b/d of oil and 150mcf/d of gas.

Symbion Power has announced that it has begun testing the turbines at the 120MW Ubungo power plant using gas supplied by a new pipeline from Mtwara. Ubungo, which has not been operating for more than a year due to gas shortages, used much more costly liquid fuels between 2012 and 2014. Gas from Mtwara is also expected to allow the Tanzania Electric Supply Company (Tanesco) to resume operations at some of its power plants.

Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) has notified operator Aminex that it plans to take a 5% working interest in the Kiliwani North development licence. Under the terms of the Nyuni East Songo-Songo production-sharing agreement which governs the Kiliwani North licence, TPDC has the right to take up 5%, in exchange for reimbursing the joint venture partners with the parastatal’s proportionate share of development capital expenditure on the licence to date. On conclusion of the back-in, Aminex’s interest will fall to 55.575% from 58.5% now.

Greek power contractor Metka has signed an agreement worth $350m to provide fast-track engineering, procurement and construction services and operations and maintenance support for a 250MW gas power plant. The deal was struck with the Ghanaian government in partnership with Africa and Middle East Resources Investment Group (Ameri Energy) – the investment vehicle of Sheikh Ahmed Bin Dalmook Al-Maktoum, a member of Dubai’s ruling family – who is the concessionaire for the project. It will be developed under a five-year build, own, operate and transfer arrangement.

Finance minister Calle Schlettwein is caught between debt concerns and political pressures as he argues the case against developing the Kudu gas field in a debate that has pitted the ruling Swapo party’s patronage networks against financial prudence.Following mines and energy minister Obeth Kandjoze’s decision in June to cancel the Xaris standby power plant as a result of a doubling in the price tag, President Hage Geingob tasked Schlettwein to find a solution to a projected 250MW shortfall in electricity supply in 2016.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has emerged as lead financer of the 1,800MW Damanhour combined-cycle gas turbine power plant in the Nile Delta. A €548m ($620m) loan for the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC) is under appraisal, representing about 44.5% of the estimated $1.34bn total cost of the project, located on the El-Mahmoudia canal in El-Beheira governorate, 150km north-west of Cairo.The project consists of two 900MW combined-cycle modules, each with two 300MW high-efficiency gas turbines, two multi-pressure heat-recovery steam generators without supplementary firing, and a 300MW reheat steam turbine generator.

Easigas and Reatile Gaz have agreed to merge their respective liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) interests in Southern Africa. Easigas is a wholly owned subsidiary of France’s Rubis Group with operations in South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho and Botswana. Reatile Gaz, which has LPG operations in South Africa and is active in Mozambique and Zimbabwe, is owned 55% by Reatile Group and 45% by Engen Petroleum. The merged operation will be owned 60% by Rubis Group and 40% by Reatile Gaz, and will offer improved efficiency by combining supply and distribution infrastructure.

The Egyptian government implemented encouraging energy sector reforms over the summer months including a further round of tariff increases and an electricity law setting out the first steps in the unbundling of the sector. Egypt’s reliance on gas-fired power generation as a short-term way of closing the gap between supply and demand looked foolhardy and expensive in June when this policy seemed destined to commit the country to much higher levels of imports.

The government is exploring the use of coal bed methane and liquefied natural gas (LNG) to reduce the cost of running its 90MW dual fuel open cycle gas turbine power plant at Orapa, which is currently operating using diesel. A tender has been issued for an owner’s engineer to work on developing LNG and coal bed methane gas infrastructure to supply the power plant. Bids are due by 7 October but a compulsory site visit and pre-tender clarification meeting will take place on 23 September.

A major gas find by Italian major Eni in the Egyptian deep offshore could have profound consequences for a number of industries. Rising demand for gas-fired electricity in the last decade has all but submerged Egypt’s gas export ambitions, with imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar, Russia and other suppliers expected to meet shortfalls in domestic fuel supply for years to come. According to a range of industry sources who spoke to African Energy, so substantial is the Zohr field – initially estimated at 30tcf – that not only could imports become unnecessary, but export LNG projects could eventually come back on the agenda.