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A consortium led by France’s GDF Suez signed 15-year power purchase agreements (PPAs) with Eskom and implementation agreements with the Department of Energy on 3 June for two diesel-fuelled open cycle gas turbine power plants at Dedisa (335MW), in Eastern Cape, and Avon (670MW), in KwaZulu Natal. The €780m ($1.04bn) power projects will be built on a build-own-operate basis by a consortium of GDF Suez (38%), South Africa’s Legend Power Solutions (27%), Japan’s Mitsui & Co (25%) and black economic empowerment vehicle the Peaker Trust (10%).

Japan has provided a grant of $14m to improve electricity distribution in the Brong Ahafo and Northern regions. Speaking at the signing ceremony, Japanese ambassador Naoto Nikai said improved power supply would enable people in the two regions to benefit from agricultural, health, educational and industrial development activities.

The Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (FEACC) is drafting a new regulation that will enable it to investigate corruption claims involving the private sector, according to a late May report on Ethiopian news site capitalethiopia.com. Ethiopia’s decade-old corruption law does not allow FEACC to look into private sector corruption claims, limiting it to corruption in state-owned organisations. FEACC recently arrested several Ethiopian Revenue and Customs Authority officials and local businessmen.

Following the signing of a €16m financing agreement between the European Union and the East African Community for the Rwanda-Burundi electricity interconnection and Abengoa’s appointment to build the Kenya-Uganda transmission line, the brisk pace of activity at the Interconnection of Electric Grids of Nile Equatorial Lakes Countries project is continuing with a new tender in Burundi.

Qatar has agreed to supply free natural gas to Egypt via a swap arrangement to relieve pressure on gas demand over the summer. According to a 10 June statement on Qatar News Agency, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, heir apparent to Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, personally ordered the donation of five LNG shipments to Egypt “in a bid to curb an energy production crisis in the Egyptian local market during the summer”. The gas will be delivered to Egypt’s international customers, enabling it to retain more gas for domestic generation.

SE4All has some sweeping aims: to ensure universal access to modern energy services; to double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency; and to double the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix. National plans will channel resources into much-needed energy efficiency plans, improve cooking stoves and help to finance renewables, from big hydro to solar and other off-grid solutions. But it is highly unlikely to ensure universal access 17 years from now.

Indonesia’s Medco Energi wants to move ahead with its Ghadames Basin development and restart exploration in the near future. Chief exploration and new ventures officer Faiz Shahab told Global Pacific’s Maghreb, East Mediterranean and Middle East Upstream conference in Paris on 5 June that it planned to develop six of the 18 discoveries in its Ghadames Basin Area 47, which is by far the most successful licence awarded in the past nine years.

Sweden’s Sweco has won a €1.5m ($2m) contract to carry out studies for a 90MW peat-fired power plant which will more than double Rwanda’s installed capacity. The power plant is expected to come on line by 2017. Sweco will prepare tender documents, specifications for implementation and a work plan for how to produce peat for the facility, as well as environmental and social impact studies.

The West African Power Pool (WAPP) is inviting expressions of interest from consultants to update the feasibility study and prepare bidding documents for the 330kV Nigeria-Benin interconnection reinforcement project. Work will also include assistance with the commercial framework and training of counterpart staff. Implementation will be from October 2013 to September 2014. The WAPP has applied for funding from the African Development Bank. Bids due by 30 June.

The second phase of Nigeria’s power sector privatisation programme is under way following roadshow events in Lagos on 4-5 June and London on 12-13 June. The Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) has already invited expressions of interest for ten power plants, with bids due by 19 July. Two further roadshow events are planned for Hong Kong on 19-20 June and New York on 26-27 June. The plants for sale are the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) plants owned by NDPHC, which will retain a 20% stake. Bidders are expected to be shortlisted on 8 August, with data rooms open on 16 August and a bidders’ conference in Abuja scheduled for 18-19 September.

Contained in the Public Administration Management Bill published for comment on 31 May was a proposal for an Anti-Corruption Bureau. The bureau, which would tackle public sector corruption, has the backing of public service and administration minister Lindiwe Sisulu, whose department hopes to appoint a high-profile person to head the unit. Sisulu said the proposed bureau was modelled on Tanzania’s Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau, noting that her department’s existing anti-corruption unit suffered from a lack of capacity and legal authority.

Dubai’s DP World chairman Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem met President Macky Sall on 6 June to discuss the company’s Dakar port project. A DP World statement said that Sall had assured the chairman that DP World’s investment was “welcomed and protected”. DP World Dakar obtained a 25-year concession in 2010 to operate container terminals at Dakar port and invest in their modernisation.

National Oil Corporation (NOC)’s main upstream subsidiary Arabian Gulf Oil Company (Agoco) is struggling to overcome severe production problems at its major fields in south-east Libya. Loss of output from the Sarir and Messla fields is the result of management problems, budget constraints, security problems and reluctance on the part of many service companies to restart operations. It is contributing to a more general decline in exports caused by the shut-in of Mellitah Oil and Gas’ El-Feel field in south-east Libya due to a workers’ protest, and strikes at the Zueitina oil terminal and Agoco’s Marsa al-Harigah terminal east of Tobruk.

Sweden’s PA Resources has farmed down a 70% stake in the offshore Didon and Zarat licences in Tunisia to Aberdeen-based EnQuest. PA Resources has been struggling financially for some time, and the sale will reduce the company’s share of future field development costs from an estimated $150m to $45m, enabling it to develop the Zarat field. EnQuest has assets in the UK North Sea and Malaysia, and the farm-in marks its first involvement in the African upstream.

Following its recent farm-out in Morocco, Pura Vida Energy is seeking a partner for the offshore Nkembe Block. The Australian company, which acquired 80% in the block in January, said it was interpreting existing 3D seismic data and expected to release resource estimates in July. In August, it will open a data room with the aim of finding a partner to fund new 3D seismic acquisition and drilling.