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Rotterdam-based commodities trader Vitol is spending $1.65bn to take a 30% stake in the giant Baleine field in Côte d’Ivoire and a 25% stake in Congo LNG.

Etana Energy has secured a guarantee from the local Standard Bank and new equity funding from the bank and Norway’s Norfund. The funding has enabled financial close to be reached on the Du Plessis Dam PV2 solar project in Northern Cape, for which Etana is the sole offtaker.

The AfDB, IFC and Rockefeller Foundation have established Zafiri to fund mini- and metro-grids and other renewable energy projects in sub-Saharan Africa. Operations at Zafiri are expected to start in July, with a goal of raising up to $1bn to bring energy access to 30m people by the end of the decade.

Red Rocket Energy has reached financial close for the first phase of the Overberg wind IPP in Western Cape province. The plant will supply electricity to Rio Tinto’s Richards Bay Minerals operations via wheeling on the Eskom grid.

The Niamey administration has pledged backing for the Salkadamna coal development, which would include an open-pit mine and 600MW coal-fired plant, as it tackles electricity shortages. Niger is also now due to receive a donated 40MW power plant from northern neighbour Algeria, in a wave of recent bilateral deals, but it has expelled three Chinese oil officials.

Reports that Brigadier General Abdourahamane Tchiani’s Conseil National pour la Sauvegarde de la Patrie (CNSP) junta has expelled Chinese oil officials have added a potential complication to Niger’s deep economic relationship with China.

Gulf companies have invested in some 59GW of renewable energy capacity across Africa, part of a global portfolio that now reaches above 100GW, according to research by African Energy’s sister publication Gulf States Newsletter. The international push is being driven by both commercial and diplomatic imperatives.

Mainstream Energy Solutions Ltd  (MESL) has completed the latest turbine rehabilitation at Kainji, bringing installed capacity to 600MW. New capacity additions are also planned at the Niger River plant, which was non-operational when acquired by MESL in 2013.

Canada’s Iamgold has acquired the solar PV unit supplying its Essakane gold mine in Burkina Faso from the Total Eren/Chariot Energy joint venture that developed and operated the facility. On commissioning in 2018, it was claimed to be the world’s largest PV/thermal hybrid plant.

Norway’s Scatec on 13 March said it had signed a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with offtaker Egypt Aluminium (EA) for a giga-scale solar PV and battery energy storage system (Bess) plant. According to African Energy Live Data, the development would be the continent’s largest commercial and industrial (C&I) independent power producer by aggregate capacity. It would also be one of Africa’s largest solar PV plays.

Operations have started at Scatec Solar's Mmadinare solar PV plant near Selebi-Pikwe, in Botswana's Central district. The $108m project is the country’s first utility-scale PV plant.

The US Exim Bank has re-approved a $4.7bn loan to operator TotalEnergies for the Mozambique LNG project in Cabo Delgado. Seen as a vital step for resuming the megaproject, which has been under force majeure for four years, the decision is also likely a fillip for the neighbouring, ExxonMobil-operated Rovuma LNG play.

The issue leads with Zambia, where a severe drought has created a two-fronted assault on Zesco’s balance sheet as the utility has been forced to spend more on expensive imports and thermal generation while lack of domestic capacity means its earnings from exports have been slashed. The pressures are driving reform both on tariff structures and market openness but a newly appointed chief executive is taking over an entity whose losses are increasing at an alarming rate. Power coverage includes an examination of the news that Amea Power has signed capacity purchase agreement deals with utility Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) for an aggregate 1.5GWh of standalone battery energy storage system (Bess) plant capacity. The developments are another sign of the potential for large battery plants to underwrite vast on-grid, intermittent renewable energy sources. African Energy also reflects  on the importance of hydroelectric power (HEP) to national energy mixes across Africa. According to African Energy Live Data, over 6GW of HEP plants are under construction. Traditionally state-dominated, private investors are increasingly interested in strategic HEP plays. TotalEnergies has finalised its acquisition of Scatec’s 51% interest in a significant Africa-focused HEP venture. But megaprojects can also come with outsized risks. These include overreliance upon HEP, as starkly illustrated by the impact of long-running drought on cornerstone plants in Zambia and Zimbabwe. In Uganda, the government has compelled CWE, builder of the 183MW Isimba HEP, to commence a $150m repairs programme. Oil and gas coverage includes a focus on Gabon. With a month to go until the transitional election, in which Brigadier General Brice Nguema will stand, oil and gas players are keeping a close watch on political developments. Investors remain sanguine after last year’s pre-emption of 48,000 b/d of producing assets by the state-owned Gabon Oil Company. Independents Panoro and BW Energy are optimistic over Gabon’s upstream, outlining ambitious output increases, while fellow indie Perenco is advancing gas plays, LNG and LPG production. African Energy examines the state of play in Senegal, where many see 2025 as the year that President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko must make good on their reforming promises. Strategy and risk coverage also looks at South Sudan, where the arrest of petroleum minister Puot Kang Chol, along with other senior allies of First Vice President Riek Macha, has raised tensions in Juba and provoked questions about the country’s seven-year peace settlement. The African Energy View focuses on Ghana, where the new NDC administration is promising a radical shake-up of Ghanaian institutions and spending, including another stab at electricity sector privatisation – in an attempt to carry through what John Mahama promised when he was last president, a decade ago.  

Empower New Energy has signed a 12-year PPA for two rooftop solar PV plants that will supply manufacturing and logistics firm Saray Immo.

With a presidential election due in which ‘transition president’ Brigadier General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema now says he will stand, oil and gas players are keeping a close watch on political developments – not least after last year’s pre-emption of 48,000 b/d of producing assets by the state-owned GOC – but indies are nonetheless optimistic, with large new capital commitments going into new discoveries, infrastructure and major new gas plays, writes James Gavin.