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The enormous roster of energy sector investment projects announced at the Egypt Economic Development Conference at Sharm El-Sheikh in mid-March includes a number of firm projects to be funded by the government, and a larger number of independent power projects (IPPs) in gas, coal and renewables, some of which represent firm commitments and others which are much less likely to proceed. The overwhelming question is how the promised developments will be paid for alongside even more ambitious plans for the construction of a new $45bn capital city east of Cairo.

BP Egypt has announced a second gas discovery in the North Damietta Offshore concession in the East Nile Delta. BP said on 9 March the Atoll-1 deep-water exploration well, drilled by the semi-submersible rig Maersk Discoverer, had reached 6,400 metres depth and penetrated 50 metres of gas pay in high-quality Oligocene sandstones. Expected to be the deepest well ever drilled in Egypt, the Atoll well still has another 1km to drill to test the same reservoir section found to be gas bearing in the 2013 Salamat discovery, 15km to the south.

Foxtrot International has made a gas discovery with the Marlin North-1 well on offshore Block CI-27. RAK Petroleum said the well flowed gas and oil from the Turonian and Lower Senonian intervals, neither of which had previously tested hydrocarbons on the block. A 22-metre perforated section of the gas-bearing column in the Turonian flowed 25mcf/d of gas and 150 b/d of condensates through a 46/64 inch choke, while in the Lower Senonian, an 11-metre perforated section of the oil-bearing column flowed 1,525 b/d of 27° API oil and 0.6mcf/d of associated gas through a 28/64 inch choke.

Royal Dutch Shell has signed a preliminary agreement to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the Ghana 1000 gas-to-power project. A joint statement said project partners General Electric, Endeavor Energy, Eranove and Sage Petroleum had agreed a supply term sheet with Shell and entered into exclusive sale and purchase agreement negotiations for a long-term supply agreement. Ghana 1000 is an integrated gas-to-power project that will consist of 1,300MW to be delivered in two phases, a floating storage and regasification unit and related infrastructure.

The government of Côte d’Ivoire has asked the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (Itlos) to order Ghana to suspend operations on the TEN development until a decision can be reached on the two countries’ maritime boundary dispute. A full verdict from the Hamburg-based tribunal is expected towards the end of 2017. TEN operator Tullow Oil said a decision on the Ivorian request should be handed down before the end of April 2015. Ghana took the dispute to the tribunal last year in an effort to resolve the long-running dispute after bilateral negotiations failed to make significant progress.

US power developer ContourGlobal aims to complete pre-commissioning of the 25MW first phase of its Lake Kivu methane plant by end-March, then tow the barge out into the lake for the commissioning phase. The innovative project aims to produce 100MW of power from methane dissolved in the lake’s waters, while also averting the risk of a potentially deadly release of methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. With the 28MW Nyabarongo hydro plant inaugurated by President Paul Kagame on 5 March and the 15MW Gishoma peat plant due on stream in H2, Rwanda’s installed capacity should reach almost 200MW by year-end.

Tullow Oil has given a contract to DeepOcean Ghana for a multi-purpose construction vessel to work on the Jubilee and TEN developments. The contract includes subsea tree and jumper installations in water depths of approximately 1,100-2,000 metres. DeepOcean Ghana, which is 51% Ghanaian owned, is mobilising the Rem Forza subsea construction vessel for a six-month charter from March to August 2015, with the possibility of extension into 2016.

Operator Anadarko has failed to find hydrocarbons with the Kifaru-1 well on the Rovuma Onshore concession. Partner Wentworth Resources said Kifaru-1 was drilled to a total depth of 3,100 metres in Eocene-age rocks. The well encountered all targeted zones in the Miocene, Oligocene and Eocene formations but failed to find an economic reservoir and, as a result, the well has been plugged and abandoned. The well completes the partners’ drilling obligations for the block. The preceding well on the block, Tembo-1, found 11 metres of gas pay in December, and the partners are evaluating their options.

InfraCo Africa has issued a request for prequalification seeking expressions of interest from consortia of engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for the detailed design, engineering, procurement and construction of a power plant at Lake Albert. The project involves the development, finance, construction and operation of a dual-fuel power plant to run on associated gas and heavy fuel oil produced by the Uganda oil industry. Lake Albert Infrastructure Services Limited (LAIS), a Ugandan company established and owned by InfraCo.

Seplat has abandoned plans to make a bid for Afren after the beleaguered company turned down its request for a further extension to the deadline to make a formal offer. “The board has not received any proposal from Seplat that it believes is capable of being implemented on terms satisfactory to all relevant stakeholders in the company, including the indicated value being significantly below the aggregate value of the debt of the company,” Afren said in a 13 February statement.

Seplat Petroleum Development Company has acquired stakes in two Niger Delta licences sold by Chevron Nigeria. The company, which raised $500m with a share listing in London and Lagos last year and is also considering a bid for Afren (AE 292/19), has completed the acquisition of a 40% stake in OML 53, as well as indirectly buying 22.5% in OML 55. Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has 60% in both blocks. Seplat will acquire the OML 55 stake by buying 56.25% of Belemaoil Producing Limited, a special purpose vehicle that has completed the acquisition of 40% in the licence from Chevron.

As energy imports dry up, Namibia is hopeful that short-term measures will help keep the lights on until the bigger Baynes and Kudu schemes can be realised. Botswana is having a harder time of it, with criticism of the government’s slow response to the looming supply crunch and a series of problems at the key Morupule B plant. The Gaborone government has maintained the subsidy paid to Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) in the 2015 budget, saying the continued underperformance of the electricity sector was a major concern.

The near collapse of Libya’s electric power system ought to have provided an opportunity for APR Energy to achieve the much-delayed renewal of its 450MW rental contracts with General Electric Company of Libya (Gecol). However, a combination of political missteps and problems with accessing foreign currency reserves to finance any new contract destroyed any chance of a deal going through. So, in late January, the company informed investors that, as the Tobruk-based House of Representatives had not ratified its extension, its board had approved “the reassignment of those assets to new opportunities, effective immediately”.

The Ghana 1000 gas-to-power project partners have signed an agreement with floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) provider Excelerate Energy for an FSRU to supply the project planned for Aboadze. According to a joint statement from the project partners, the first phase of the Ghana 1000 project is expected to be completed in late 2016 and will add 125MW to the grid. This will increase to 750MW by 2018 and 1,300MW within five years. The project is led by General Electric and Endeavor Energy, with consortium partners Eranove and Ghanaian oil trader Sage Petroleum.

General Electric Company of Libya (Gecol) is facing a series of unprecedented threats to power generation and distribution across the whole country. Failures at a number of vital transformers and substations have effectively broken the national grid into a number of isolated networks. Combined with shortages of both diesel and natural gas, and the suspension of key development projects following the withdrawal of international partners, the company estimates that it has lost approximately 1,800MW – about two-fifths – of the 4,565MW of installed capacity.