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Total has signed production-sharing agreements with Petroci for three new ultra-deep offshore licences

A ground-breaking ceremony took place on 4 December for Kenya Electricity Generating Company’s 83.3MW Olkaria I Unit VI plant, which is expected online in 2021. The ceremony was attended by President Uhuru Kenyatta.

The Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (Masen) has secured financing for its innovative Noor Midelt project to generate electricity from a concentrated solar power (CSP) and photovoltaic (PV) hybrid plant. A $25m loan from the Climate Investment Funds’ (CIF) Clean Technology Fund has been approved for the Noor Midelt Phase I CSP project, which is also supported by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and World Bank. The project will generate a total of 600MW-800MW.

The Organisation for the Development of the Gambia River Basin (OMVG) is set to issue a tender for feasibility, environmental impact and engineering studies for the construction and operation of a run-of-river hydropower plant with an estimated capacity of 20MW on the Corubal River in the Saltinho area in central Guinea-Bissau. The studies for the Saltinho project, which is to be sited some 100km south-east of the capital, Bissau, have the technical and financial support of the African Development Bank through the Sustainable Energy Fund (SEFA), the United Nations Fund for Industrial Development, the Economic Community of West African States and the Austrian Development Bank.

Under pressure to tackle crippling power shortages, Senelec has given Finland’s Wärtsilä Corporation turnkey contracts worth nearly E60m ($79m) to expand its two existing power plants at Bel Air and Kahone.

With 12,500MW of hydropower potential plus gas and coal resources, Mozambique could play a leading role in solving southern Africa’s power crisis. Energy Minister Salvador Namburete is pushing three IPPs and a number of other schemes, recognising that many major projects have yet to get off the ground, writes François Misser.

Australia’s Pancontinental Oil & Gas is disputing cash calls made by FAR subsidiary Flow Energy for Block L6. FAR issued a notice of default to Pancontinental in September 2015. Pancontinental said that, since about mid-2014, work had only been planned for the onshore portion of the block, where it said it had a 16% paying interest, based on Dubai-based Milio International, which farmed in in 2014, having a 60% paying interest. It said civil upheaval and security incidents had prevented petroleum operations from taking place, but Flow had issued cash calls for $377,801 in 2015, mainly for staff and consultants, and had assessed Pancontinental’s paying interest as 40%, not 16%.

Mnazi Bay partners Wentworth Resources and Maurel & Prom began delivering gas on 20 August to fill the new Mtwara to Dar es Salaam pipeline. Production rates are expected to reach 70mcf/d by October and 80mcf/d by year-end. Once the 517km pipeline is filled, Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) is expected to start gas deliveries to power and industrial companies in October. The pipeline has been built by China Petroleum Technology and Development Corporation, with WorleyParsons acting as project manager.

The National Directorate of Industry Commerce and Energy (DNICE) is seeking expressions of interest (EoIs) by 30 January for a 5MW solar photovoltaic power plant in Ervadão on Boavista island and a 10MW wind plant on Santiago island.The directorate, part of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Energy, is seeking a private sector developer to design, engineer, construct, commission, finance, own, operate and maintain the plants as independent power producers (IPPs) on a build, own, operate basis.

South Sudan’s oil revenue has continued to fall in H2 2017 as diversions of crude to pay off arrears to Sudan have increased. The government of South Sudan (GoSS) netted just 15,000 b/d of oil production in H2, down from 22,000 b/d in H1. Overall output was modest but steady, at an average 118,000 b/d in H2, the same as for H1. But almost a third of this output is being diverted to Sudan.The drop in GoSS crude share is down to further increases in cargoes diverted to its northern neighbour.

After official silence and considerable speculation, the Equatorial Guinea government confirmed reports that a putsch was launched against President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo on 24 December. Security has been considerably ratcheted up in the oil-rich dictatorship after the government in early January said “mercenaries” – at least 27 armed men it claimed were from Chad, Cameroon, Sudan and Central African Republic – had been arrested. Arms and ammunition were found just over the border in Cameroon, security minister Nicolas Obama Nchama said.

The World Bank’s International Finance Corporation has invested $127.5m in a $400m trade facility that will finance Mauritania’s entire refined energy import needs for the next two years.

The Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons has signed memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with successful bidders from its 2019 licensing round during the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Forum in Abu Dhabi.

Isarene drilling to start in May; Russian field development to proceed; Minister says Tullow will get Lake Albert stakes; Chevron awards FEED, New find on Abu Qir for Edison; Burullus Gas extends rig contract; Essar gets back OPL 226

Fuel pricing will be reviewed as the company sues government over the cancellation of a fuel supply contract, writes Our Windhoek Correspondent. Glencore Energy has made good on its legal threats and sued the Mines and Energy Ministry to re-instate its contract to provide half of the country’s estimated 750,000 t/yr liquid fuel requirements (AE 197/20).