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US-based investment firm Persistent Energy Capital has injected $1m into Zonful Energy, one of Zimbabwe’s fastest-growing off-grid energy companies. The partnership will give Zonful access to Persistent’s technical and advisory support in finance, financial management and information technology (IT). Persistent’s partner company Catalyst is already working with Zonful to build IT infrastructure to support the company’s ambitious growth plans. The has enabled Zonful to unlock a matching grant of $1m from the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF).

Ghana is receiving around 80mcf/d through the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP), with volumes stabilising from what energy minister Joe Oteng-Adjei has called an “erratic” performance after gas imports started earlier this year

Former Artumas Group executives Ian Horswill and Jerry Brix have reappeared as president and chief operating officer respectively of a new company.

US power developer ContourGlobal aims to complete pre-commissioning of the 25MW first phase of its Lake Kivu methane plant by end-March, then tow the barge out into the lake for the commissioning phase. The innovative project aims to produce 100MW of power from methane dissolved in the lake’s waters, while also averting the risk of a potentially deadly release of methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. With the 28MW Nyabarongo hydro plant inaugurated by President Paul Kagame on 5 March and the 15MW Gishoma peat plant due on stream in H2, Rwanda’s installed capacity should reach almost 200MW by year-end.

The World Bank has signed four financing agreements with the government of Senegal including one worth CFA60.02bn ($105m) for a new 22kkV double-circuit transmission line between the eastern town of Tambacounda and the western Malian city of Kayes, where Albatros Energy is developing a new 90MW thermal plant.

Iceland’s Reykjavik Energy Invest (REI) has signed an agreement with Djibouti Energy Company (DEC) to build a geothermal power plant as part of the Asal Rift Geothermal Project (ARGP). The plant is expected to start production in 2012, and will replace the present diesel-generated electricity with power from a renewable source.

A request for developers to prequalify DRC government revives Inga III with BHP's to build the Inga III hydropower dam opens a new chapter in the protracted saga of efforts to produce more electricity from the world-scale hydro resource on the Congo river. Having waited years for tender documents to emerge, the government has set an extremely ambitious schedule for potential developers to bid, ahead of DRC's election year, writes Jon Marks in Kinshasa

OnePower Lesotho seeks expressions of interest from consultants by 30 November for two separate contracts in support of the development of a 20MWac solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant for connection to the Ramarothole substation in Mafeteng district. The contracts for technical and financial services, and for the environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) and management plan (ESMP), will be financed with a grant from the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (Sefa), which is managed by the African Development Bank (AfDB).

Compagnie Marocaine des Hydrocarbures (CMH) has announced a minimum MD3bn ($362m) expansion plan, in the process taking a new name – Winxo – and including an estimated $100m-$120m project to build a petroleum products storage and distribution centre at Jorf Lasfar. Winxo president Hassan Agzenaï said his Holding Hogespar would finance 30%-40% of the programme from its own funds. The new Jorf Lasfar terminal on the Atlantic coast, with 600,000m3 storage capacity on a 22ha site, will add more than 50% of Morocco’s current products imports storage capacity, the company says. Some of this will eventually be exported, in line with Morocco’s policy of building export markets in north-west Africa, although this is not an immediate priority.

Kosmos has entered a petroleum agreement with the Office National des Hydrocarbures

ContourGlobal has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with Senelec for a new plant at the Cap des Biches site in Dakar. The agreement was signed at the Senegalese embassy in Washington on the eve of the US-Africa summit. ContourGlobal will invest €85m ($113m) to rehabilitate the site and build, own and operate a 53MW thermal plant running on heavy fuel oil and natural gas. According to the company, when completed in 2015, it will be the lowest cost liquid fuel and natural gas-fired power plant in Senegal.

Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is considering a final investment decision (FID) on Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG)’s delayed Train Seven project by Q4 12

Heritage Oil & Gas plans to launch a six-well exploration and appraisal programme in Block 1 in Q4, targeting the Buffalo East, Crocodile and Leopard prospects.

On 5 August, presidents Yoweri Museveni and John Pombe Magufuli broke ground for a 1,445km export pipeline to carry Ugandan crude from Hoima to Tanzania’s Tanga port. The heated pipeline will be the longest of its kind in the world, and the governments have agreed that the $3.5bn project will be completed by 2020, though financing has yet to be secured.The 216,000 b/d buried pipeline, with six pumping stations and two pressure reduction stations, will be developed by upstream partners Total E&P, CNOOC and Tullow Oil together with the two governments.

Despite international condemnation of the killing of scores of unarmed protesters, Guinea has attracted a credible offshore farm-in partner in Dana Petroleum, write Thalia Griffiths and our Conakry correspondent. But can IOCs overlook the country’s governance record, or will China’s promised infrastructure package win the day?