Search results

Electricity minister Mohamed Shaker met President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on 8 February to review the final details of the proposed contract with Rosatom to build a 4.8GW nuclear power plant on the Mediterranean coast at Dabaa, in Marsa Matrouh governorate. While both sides are issuing optimistic statements about an imminent agreement, two strict reporting bans have suggested that other facts about the development have yet to appear in the public domain.

The High Court in Accra on 8 June dismissed an application for an interlocutory injunction to prevent the signing of a concession agreement for the operation and management of Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) by China’s BXC Company. The Millennium Development Authority (MDA), which is responsible for implementing the Millennium Challenge Corporation compact in Ghana, announced the decision on the same day. The MDA said “the substantive matter is to take its normal course”.

In office for just over a year, the Jubilee Alliance government led by Kenyatta and deputy president William Ruto has had a difficult start to its tenure. As well as the trials at the International Criminal Court and accusations of a lack of preparedness in the wake of September’s terrorist strike on the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi, commentators speak of a spike in corruption since the two assumed office, and scandals certainly seem to have permeated the higher tiers of government.

Compagnie Energie Electrique du Togo (CEET) invites bids by 13 December for the rehabilitation and reinforcement of substations and medium- and low-voltage networks across the country. The contracted work is to be financed from a $35m International Development Association credit approved by the World Bank in December 2017 to reinforce and expand the electricity network and facilitate private sector investment in power generation.

Total E&P Angola has given a consortium of SBM Offshore and APL, part of Norway’s BW Offshore, a letter of award for the engineering, procurement, supply, construction and Installation of the oil loading system for the Pazflor project on Block 17.

South Korea’s SK Innovation has farmed into Kosmos Energy’s Foum Assaka contract area in the Agadir Basin, buying a 12.5% stake from Fastnet Oil & Gas ahead of drilling next year. The deal includes a cost carry for a first exploration well on the Eagle prospect and an appraisal well or second exploration well, plus reimbursement of past costs. A well on the Eagle prospect is expected to spud in late Q1 2014. On completion, the equity split for the block will be Kosmos 39.9% and operator, BP 35.1%, Fastnet’s Pathfinder Hydrocarbon ventures subsidiary and SK 12.5% each, and the state Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines 25% carried interest.

China National Electric Engineering Company (CNEEC) has given France’s Alstom group electromechanical and technical services contracts worth €50m ($54m) for the 700MW Zungeru hydroelectric power project. Alstom will provide four 175MW Francis turbine generator sets and related equipment and carry out equipment design, manufacturing, supervision of installation, commissioning, testing and site services via its subsidiary Alstom Hydro China. The project on the middle and upper portions of the Kaduna River will be owned by the government, and will be Nigeria’s largest hydropower plant when completed.

Much remains to be done to improve levels of energy access and public services in many countries, but Southern Africa’s generation capacity is undoubtedly growing, according to African Energy Live Data. The new figures – extrapolated from Live Data’s 1,218 detailed entries for the region – show that on-grid generation capacity will have increased by 50% in the decade to 2020 if the potential of the project pipeline reported on the database is fulfilled.

Office National de l’Electricité (ONE) has selected a consortium led by EDF Energies Nouvelles, in association with Mitsui & Co, as preferred bidder for the 150MW Taza wind project.

The Ministry of Energy and Mines is already quietly downgrading expectations for the outcome of Agence Nationale pour la Valorisation des Ressources en Hydrocarbures (Alnaft)’s third licensing round (AE 193/10).

The World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation has announced an agreement with Oesterreichische Entwicklungsbank (OeEB), the Austrian development bank, to increase sustainable energy investment in sub-Saharan Africa, starting with Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda. OeEB agreed to contribute €2m ($2.6m) to support project development, capacity building and assistance to financial institutions under the Africa Sustainable Energy Facility, a joint IFC and European Investment Bank (EIB) programme to increase investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency. Both institutions are contributing equally to the €60m financing facility, while OeEB, alongside EIB, is providing additional funds for a support unit that will identify and facilitate investments.

The Tunisian government has embarked on a second attempt to persuade the nation of the potential benefits of shale gas exploration after its first attempt encountered popular opposition. On 27 June, minister of industry Mehdi Jomaâ launched a “national debate on energy” at which both caretaker President Moncef Marzouki and Prime Minister Ali Larayedh made speeches. Officials canvassed by African Energy before the launch said that the technical decision to develop shale resources had already been taken in the ministry and at state oil company Entreprise Tunisienne d’Activités Pétrolières (Etap). The task is now to muster the necessary political and popular backing.

Soma Oil & Gas executive director for Africa Hassan Khaire has been named as prime minister in the government of new Somali president Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed. Soma said Khaire had resigned from the board and relinquished all his shares in the company. Khaire, 46, had worked with Soma since the company was founded in 2013, and before that as director for the Norwegian Refugee Council for Somalia and East Africa, having come to Norway in the late 1980s as a refugee.

It all seems like business as usual. Australian Securities Exchange and Alternative Investment Market-listed Range Resources has announced a new financial agreement with its joint venture partner Canada-based Africa Oil Corporation (AOC), for a second exploration well due to be spudded by September. This will be included as part of AOC’s exploration commitments,which oblige it to spend $22.5m in Dharoor and Nugaal before Range reverts to a contributing basis. A Range company report says AOC has satisfied its commitments with regard to Dharoor, but still has around $15m to pay on Nugaal.

The European Investment Bank on 10 September agreed a loan of €75m ($100m) to Eskom to finance the construction of a 100MW concentrating solar power (CSP) plant near Upington, in the Northern Cape. The project is also receiving funding from the African Development Bank, Agence Française de Développement, the Clean Technology Fund, Germany’s KfW and the World Bank.