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Several high-profile government figures have been dismissed over a new power sector corruption scandal set to overshadow the contest for the leadership of incumbent party Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) and ensure corruption remains top of the agenda in the run-up to October’s elections. The scandal centres on payments to Pan Africa Power Solutions Tanzania, owned by controversial businessman Harbinder Singh Sethi, from TSh200bn ($124m) held in an escrow account at the central bank. Sethi claimed to have purchased a 70% stake in Independent Power Tanzania Limited (IPTL), a 100MW gas-fired power plant, from Malaysia’s Mechmar Corporation, which is now in administration.

With a plummeting oil price making life difficult for Africa’s explorers, SacOil Holdings is looking at developing a pipeline to import Mozambican gas into South Africa as a strategy to diversify its portfolio. On 3 December it signed a joint development agreement (JDA) with South Africa’s Public Investment Corporation, which has a significant shareholding in the company, and Instituto de Gestão das Participações do Estado (Igepe), the investment arm of the Mozambican government, with the aim of evaluating the technical and commercial feasibility of the project.

The pragmatic approach adopted by energy authorities in Cairo is a major reason why international oil companies (IOCs) are still committed to Egypt despite being owed billions of dollars for gas sold on the domestic market. According to current proposals, the bulk of the arrears will be paid off by 2018 or before. However there is still some lack of clarity both about where the financial resources will come from to enable the government to meet its obligations and also about the commercial terms for future offshore developments. These include some of the country’s most important undeveloped resources.

Whoever wins the second round of the closely fought presidential election on 21 December, Tunisia will become the only country to have emerged from the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings with a fully functioning democracy. The country will set a further global precedent in 2015 if, as is likely, its new government decides to authorise exploitation of shale oil and gas reserves.For some months, Royal Dutch Shell has been poised to sign a development contract with senior officials from Entreprise Tunisienne d’Activités Pétrolières (Etap), but various political approvals are needed before this can happen.

The Ukraine crisis has, once more, thrown the European Union’s dependency on Russian gas into question – creating a political context in which, a senior EU official says, “we have no options but Algeria” to secure steady supply. Major international oil companies (IOCs) see the development of conventional gas fields and Algerian shales – which are recognised as some of the most promising outside North America – as a key to supplying European and wider markets over coming decades.

Italy’s Edison, part of EDF group, has signed two memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with investment holding company Qalaa Holdings – formerly Citadel Capital – and the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) for the construction of a 180MW combined cycle gas turbine power plant in Abu Qir. The MoU with Qalaa covers the construction of the plant while the MoU with EGPC aims to secure part of the gas offtake from the Abu Qir concession in the offshore Nile Delta, which Edison has held since 2009.

The mid-November visit to Algiers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan provided a backdrop for the signing of a renewed deal for Sonatrach to supply 4.4bcm/yr of liquefied natural gas to its long-standing Turkish client Botas. The two state companies extended their agreement for another ten years. Turkey’s Anadolu Agency reported Erdogan as saying: “Right now, Algeria is the fourth biggest source for Turkish natural gas imports.” Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan are Turkey’s top three suppliers, piping a total of 42bcm/yr.

Judging by the headlines, 2014 has been a significant year for improving electricity supply in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where only 290m of the 915m population has access and the total number without grid connections is still rising, according to the International Energy Agency. Several independent power projects (IPPs) have reached financial close, including Ghana’s long-awaited Cenpower deal; others are almost there – most notably Nigeria’s template-setting Azura-Edo IPP, whose impending completion was a focus for participants at the 24-25 November Africa Investment Exchange: Energy (AIX) meeting in London. Multilaterals and governments report progress in efforts to develop ‘transformational’ schemes including Grand Inga and strategic transmission projects.

Sudan still has hopes of exploiting its gas reserves, put at 3tcf, but with demand for electricity and industrial feedstock rising, President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir on 30 November said the government planned a pipeline from Port Sudan to Khartoum to facilitate gas imports. Reports suggested that Sudan’s increasingly friendly ties with Qatar could open the way for liquefied natural gas imports, which were discussed during a November visit to Doha by defence minister Abdelrahim Mohammed Hussein. After a meeting with Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, Hussein told reporters he had signed an “agreement to export gas from Qatar to Sudan for electricity production”, starting at the beginning of 2015.

With meetings and signings planned across London, several participants at the Africa Investment Exchange: Energy (AIX) meeting on 24-25 November had their eyes on the long-awaited financial close of the Azura-Edo independent power project (IPP). Azura’s success is crucial for the credibility of Nigeria’s efforts to bring private investment into the electricity supply industry. Azura is seen as a bellwether for the wider finance and developer communities, who are looking to a marked increase in privately financed IPPs and associated projects across the continent, including in the distribution sector, whose revenues are essential to underwrite the new generation companies.

Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) is to take over the Ghana National Gas Company (GNGC) to create a new gas subsidiary as part of its expansion plans, finance minister Seth Terkper told parliament on 19 November.The minister said the consolidation would reduce the financing conditions imposed by investors. He said the government planned to appoint a transaction adviser for the process and ask them to advise on integrating the Tema Oil Refinery and the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company.

Tanzania’s draft gas bill is set to be put before parliament, which began its final session of the year on 4 November. The legislation will provide a regulatory framework for the downstream sector based on the natural gas policy passed late last year, and should provide companies such as BG Group and Statoil with the security and confidence to push ahead with a final investment decision (FID) on a two-train liquefaction facility to export the combined 47tcf of natural gas reserves they have discovered offshore in the Ruvuma Basin.

Many individual elements of a plan to fix Egypt’s energy problems are now coming into focus – including a politically controversial proposal to import gas from Israel. But important details are still missing, not least the commercial terms for imports and how these will relate to the terms under which domestic producers will sell their gas. It is also far from certain that the administration of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has a coherent plan to address fundamental economic concerns, such as the need to abolish subsidies, which are currently being alleviated by massive injections of Gulf finance.

Sonangol chairman Francisco de Lemos José Maria and Eni chief executive Claudio Descalzi signed a strategic agreement on 17 November on co-operation activities and joint projects. Under the agreement, Eni and Sonangol will set up a joint team aimed at studying the potential of the non-associated gas in the Lower Congo Basin.The study will analyse the different options for monetising the gas, both internationally and in the domestic market, where gas will have a crucial role in supporting the local economy.

Former NamPower managing director Leake Hangala has said that plans to develop the Kudu gas-to-power project are a waste of time and money and Namibian officials leading the project are deceiving the government about its financial viability.Hangala’s remarks, made in the presence of mines and energy minister Isak Katali and trade and industry minister Calle Schlettwein at the Namibia Energy Policy Forum in Windhoek on 14 November, follow the decision by Tullow Oil and Itochu Corporation to hand back to the government control of the project, previously seen as the centrepiece of Namibia’s plans to address a looming power shortage.