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Although unfashionable, refineries are likely to prove increasingly important to Africa’s energy security, with investors backing new downstream projects in Nigeria, Angola, Uganda and South Africa. These are expected to narrow the refined products trade imbalance in sub-Saharan Africa, where backers also highlight the role of ‘transition fuels’ such as LPG, write Marc Howard and Tonderayi Mukeredzi.

Aliko Dangote has kept his cards close to his chest, but his 650,000 b/d refinery in Lekki, Lagos state is set to change the regional downstream balance, writes Leonard Lawal in Lagos.

Published June 2024, this map illustrates the extent of Africa's downstream infrastructure, focused on oil refineries, coal-to-liquid (CTL) and gas-to-liquid (GTL) plants. Sites across Africa are marked according to their status: in operation, rehabilitation, under construction, planned/proposed or idle/care and maintenance/closed. Brief notes include names and capacities. A small inset shows in more detail the location of projects in Egypt, while a second inset shows projects in Nigeria and Cameroon. Three further insets are focused on the Dangote refinery in Nigeria, Angola's Cabinda oil refinery and the planned Kanalega Industrial Park and oil refinery at Houma in Uganda. The map is presented as a PDF file using eps graphics, meaning that there is no loss of resolution as the file is enlarged.  

Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) is offering a three-year maintenance contract for the 132MW coal-fired power station. The deadline for bids is 12 July.

Angola’s first new refinery since independence is set to boost the trade balance of Africa’s third-largest crude exporter, with the initial phase expected to meet 10% of domestic demand.

South Africa has lost about 50% of its oil refining capacity since 2020, with three key refiners taken off line, leaving the country heavily reliant on imports for refined fuel products. Faced with a growing mismatch between local demand and supply, the authorities have been trying to encourage local and foreign investors to revive and expand the idle refineries and build new ones to ensure energy security, writes Tonderayi Mukeredzi.

While diesel and petroleum attract the lion’s share of downstream attention, other products are vitally important for Africa’s energy transition. In its Oil 2024 report released in June, the International Energy Agency (IEA) cites liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as a key transition fuel for Africa, predicting 5% annual growth.

Tenders for solar power with energy storage and mini-grids under the Global Energy Transfer Feed-in Tariff programme are expected to start soon, after two years of planning.

The New and Renewable Energy Authority has signed a trio of land agreements in a strategic area the Egyptian government hopes will become one of the world’s largest zones of wind output with close to 30GW of installed production.

South Africa has pulled back from the brink with a market-friendly national coalition that seems to have outflanked ANC radicals, along with Julius Malema’s EFF and ex-President Zuma’s MKP. With President Ramaphosa back, supported by the Democratic Alliance, critical questions must now be answered about the extent to which South Africa can reverse its fortunes in key sectors.

Authority in Libya’s oil and gas sector is fraying, with a flood of internal administrative correspondence leaking from the Government of National Unity and especially from NOC, whose failure to account for its multi-billion dollar budgets is now threatening operations, while two rival ministers compete for control and services giant Schlumberger has threatened to suspend operations until its debts are paid, writes John Hamilton.

Scatec-owned Release’s expansion of solar and battery storage power plants is a success for its flexible leasing model and could reduce Cameroon’s dependence on diesel generators.

Well-connected Moroccan interests have taken another big stake in a prospective natural gas play, with Al-Mada’s mining subsidiary Managem paying up to $45.2m for stakes in the Tendrara natural gas concession and nearby Grand Tendrara and Anoual permits.

Electricity-starved Guinea Bissau will get $48m from the International Development Association, Green Climate Fund and Esmap to catalyse solar energy generation and improve on low levels of electricity access.

According to cabinet secretary for energy Davis Chirchir, the Kenyan government’s moratorium on IPPs is ‘unsustainable’, amid the risk of future loadshedding due to shortage of supply, while other advances are in the pipeline, including wheeling tariffs and the supply of power through embedded networks, writes Neville Otuki in Nairobi.