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Tullow Oil continues to face problems in increasing oil production from the Jubilee field. An operational update on 15 January said output averaged 100,000 b/d for 2013, lower than the planned 120,000 b/d, following issues with the water injection system on the floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel that Tullow said had now been resolved. However, increasing output to the target of 120,000 b/d is hampered by difficulties with handling the associated gas. Tullow said the Ghana National Gas Company’s onshore gas-processing plant would not be ready to receive Jubilee gas until H2 2014.

The Kenyan government has invited expressions of interest for the development of two power plants, a 7-800MW gas-fired combined cycle power plant including a floating storage and regasification unit at Dongo Kundu, near Mombasa, and a 900-1,000MW coal fired power plant in Lamu. The projects form part of the government’s plan to boost generation capacity by 5,000MW over 40 months, with natural gas and coal respectively adding 1,050MW and 1,920MW to the proposed total.

Eskom aims to launch an international tender for its first large scale wind farm towards the end of this year or early in 2011.

The National Council on Privatisation has announced preferred bidders for ten power distribution companies (discos) of the 11 offered for sale. Integrated Energy, partnered with Manila Electric of the Philippines, placed the highest bid for the Yola, Ibadan, Eko and Ikeja discos

Project developer Aldwych International has taken a 51% stake in the Lake Turkana Wind Power project to produce 300MW of power from a site in northern Kenya.

EX-IM BANK: Still open for Nigeria; MOZAMBIQUE: IFC finances mining exploration; MENA REGION: IFC supports CTI Group

Viewed from Harare, it is business as usual on all fronts: European Union and US sanctions continue to inconvenience President Robert Mugabe and key members of his regime; swathes of the population (including the estimated 4m Zimbabweans living abroad) despair of genuine political change that can unlock the country’s huge potential. However, after a 16 March referendum approved a new constitution, elections will follow by 29 June at the latest. Off the record, leaders of coalition partner the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) say their horizons are limited to winning extra seats and obtaining more ministerial posts in the next government. This recognises the effective hold that Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu PF), backed by a powerful securocrat elite, exerts over power.

Nigerian independent Seplat Petroleum announced on 15 October that it had agreed to buy AIM-listed Eland Oil & Gas for £382m ($478m). The 166p/share price represents a premium of approximately 28.5% to the Eland closing price of 129.2p on 14 October. The offer has been recommended by the Eland board and is supported by its three largest shareholders, which hold about 59% of the company’s shares, Seplat said.

The government is seeking bids for the expansion of the Palmarejo power plant on Santiago Island, 11km from Praia.

Brenham Oil & Gas Corporation on 23 March announced a letter of award from the government giving it a 15% participating interest in four blocks in West Africa

A look at the latest attempts to bring stakeholders in the Inga projects together

Economic pressures created by the ‘Arab Spring’ uprisings have squeezed payments by the Ministry of Petroleum. President Hosni Mubarak’s fall and the establishment of interim authority under the Supreme Council for the Armed Forces (SCAF) has not had a major long-term impact on production, which has returned to pre-crisis levels. However, tight government finances

Ethiopia has imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew on infrastructure projects and business premises as part of a six-month state of emergency imposed on 8 October. According to a government decree dated 15 October, only authorised employees of factories and business entities are allowed to access them between 6pm and 6am, and security officials have been mandated to take action on anyone violating the curfew. Diplomats may not travel beyond a 40km radius of Addis Ababa without official permission “for their own safety”, and demonstrations and political gatherings are banned, as are sharing information via social media and watching diaspora TV channels ESAT and OMN “or other similar terrorist-linked media”.

Madagascar Oil’s new owners hope their Tsimiroro field development, whose first phase is at the front-end engineering and design stage, will be largely immune to the Covid-19 pandemic and parallel slump in global oil prices. Speaking to African Energy as part of the company’s campaign to find development partners, chairman Al Njoo said Madagascar Oil was talking to a number of Chinese companies, including Hong Kong-based bunker service provider Chimbusco Pan Nation Petro-Chemical Company, a joint venture between Petro-China and Shanghai-based Cosco Shipping. It is also in discussions with a number of Chinese banks.

Bids were due by 15 May for a European Development Fund-financed programme to improve the corporate governance of power utility Zesco. Zesco has obtained European Investment Bank funding for two projects – upgrading the existing 220kV Kafue-Muzuma-Livingstone transmission line to 330 kV, and the Itezhi Tezhi hydro project and related transmission infrastructure. According to the tender notice: “Zesco has expressed its desire and commitment to strengthen good corporate governance and compliance procedures within the company.” The winning consultant will help the utility develop and implement a corporate governance framework.