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The Ministry of Water and Energy is evaluating a feasibility study for the construction of five small-scale hydro-power plants to be built and managed by local private investors. The Ethiopian embassy monthly newsletter said four cooperatives and a private investor from the Southern region had been selected by the ministry’s Rural Electrification Fund to invest in the projects.

German utility RWE’s decision to sell its wholly owned upstream subsidiary RWE Dea presents an opportunity to acquire a portfolio of North Africa assets including production in Egypt, pending developments in Algeria and Libya and exploration rights in all three countries as well as in Mauritania. The company also has licences in a handful of European countries as well as in Trinidad and Tobago and Turkmenistan.

Electricity and gas market regulator Commission de Régulation de l’Electricité et du Gaz (Creg) may be planning to introduce a feed-in tariff which would enable third-party power producers to sell electricity into the grid. According to the Algiers-based manager of a European company hoping to develop small independent power projects, a proposal to establish the legal basis for this may be enacted this year. It has been a decade since the authorities last attempted to bring in such a reform.

This map provides an overview of power generation and transmission infrastructure in Ghana. Actual and planned projects are shown. Generation projects include hydroelectric, thermal, solar , wind and waste-to-power/biofuels sites. Transmission lines of 161kV, 225kV and 330kV are shown. The map is a pdf file. The images are made using eps graphics, which don't lose resolution as they are enlarged.

GE has agreed to build a turbine manufacturing complex in Algeria as part of a $2bn power supply contract with Sonelgaz. The ambitious deal boosts Algeria’s domestic manufacturing capacity and gives the US company the chance to establish an in-built competitive advantage over its rivals, writes John Hamilton

TKE-Djibouti Power Light (TKE-DJPL) has brought in Aggreko to provide 57MW of short-term power supply. A 5MW unit will be commissioned within six weeks of contract signing with the remaining 52MW scheduled for operation in May. The diesel-fuelled facility will be located next to Djibouti’s International Airport.

Aberdeen-based newcomer Eland Oil and Gas has entered into an option agreement with Amalgamated Oil Company Nigeria Limited (Amocon) to buy a 40% equity stake in OPL 452 in the eastern Niger Delta. The block, immediately to the north of producing oil fields in OML 114 and 123, covers 668km2 and is 100% owned by Amocon.

The Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), BP’s partner in its massive onshore and offshore exploration blocks, is experiencing a crisis of leadership as it struggles to deal with losses sustained during the latter years of Colonel Muammar Qadhafi’s rule. In mid-February, Prime Minister Ali Zeidan dismissed the sovereign wealth fund’s executive chairman Mohsen Derregia, replacing him with Central Bank of Libya deputy governor Ali Mohamed Salem Hibri.

Algerian gas and electricity utility Sonelgaz has issued a detailed and indignant rebuttal to allegations that the contract it awarded to Montreal-based contractor SNC-Lavalin in early 2006 to build the 1,200MW Hadjeret Ennouss generation plant at Cherchell, west of Algiers, was not competitive. Since Lavalin was dragged into the widening ‘Sonatrach-2’ corruption scandal following revelations that it also used Farid Bedjaoui as a business intermediary, scrutiny of its business has widened beyond its multi-billion dollar order book with the national oil and gas company.

US manufacturing and contracting company General Electric (GE) has agreed to build a joint-venture industrial complex in Algeria to construct turbines and other power plant equipment as a condition of a $2bn supply contract with power and gas utility Sonelgaz. On 28 February, Sonelgaz announced that GE had submitted the lowest offer to supply 36 turbines with total capacity of 8,400MW, which will be installed in six power plants over the next four years. It said that only companies willing to establish domestic production of turbines, accumulators and control systems for future projects could bid.

Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (Egas) has relaunched a tender to import gas which it first announced in December. The decision, announced on 10 March, recognises that the first attempt was a failure as it contained too many inconsistencies to be workable. Imports are needed because Egypt’s power sector is short of gas, causing a supply crisis in late 2012, but the country still has to meet its export commitments.

The Cove Energy team’s new venture in the Comoros Islands has won backing from Amsterdam-based Oranje-Nassau Energie. Discover Exploration has a production-sharing contract (PSC) covering 18,0000km2 over the outboard part of the Rovuma Delta, geologically on trend with Cove’s former Mozambique acreage. Discover’s management team is led by Cove veterans Michael Blaha, John Craven and Michael Nolan, while Oranje-Nassau Energie chairman Marcel van Poecke, chief executive Alexander Berger and board adviser Paddy Spink are on the Discover board as non-executive directors.

Tullow is seeking indemnification from Heritage Oil & Gas over capital gains tax it paid to the Ugandan government in 2010. The dispute dates back to Tullow’s acquisition of Heritage’s rights and interests in two Ugandan petroleum exploration areas in the Lake Albert Rift Basin, Blocks 1 and 3A, for $1.45m almost three years ago. The Ugandan Revenue Authority (URA) levied a $404m tax on the transaction, for which Heritage said it was not liable, so that Tullow ended up paying.

The New and Renewable Energy Agency (NREA) has extended the deadline for a tender for six pieces of land on the Gulf of Suez, each suitable for a 100MW wind farm. Egypt aims to meet 20% of power demand from renewable energy sources by 2020, including 12% from wind, representing 7,200MW. The country has installed wind capacity of 550MW and NREA plans to tender 4,825MW of private wind projects.

Revised February 2013, this map provides an overview of power generation and transmission projects in Sudan and South Sudan. Actual and planned projects are shown. Generation projects include hydroelectric, thermal, solar , wind and waste-to-power/biofuels sites. Transmission lines of 110kV, 220kV and 500kV are shown. The map is a pdf file. The images are made using eps graphics, which don't lose resolution as they are enlarged.