African Energy Resources has entered into a binding letter of intent to sell its Zambian uranium licences to Karoo Exploration for US$ 2-million dollars in cash and US$500 000 dollars in equity. The sale, according to the website Proactive Investors, will give the company extra cash in a tough capital raising environment, allowing it to focus on developing its coal projects in Botswana.
African Energy had previously flagged that it was pursuing divestment options for non-core uranium projects, which contain Measured, Indicated and Inferred Resources of more than 11 million pounds of U3O8. African
Energy is focused firstly on developing its Sese Integrated Power Project to build an initial 300 megawatt power station, with its own dedicated coal mine, on a small part of the Sese deposit. Secondly, the Sese export project aims to ship processed Sese coal to Asia.
Tuesday, 8 October 2013
Mandatory blending of biofuels in South Africa
Mandatory blending of biofuels with petrol and diesel for South Africa will come into effect from October 1 2015, energy minister Ben Martins said. The regulation is in line with the cabinet decision taken in 2007 to use biofuels as a means of diversifying the country’s energy supplies. A five-year pilot project was envisaged with the aim of achieving a 2% biofuels penetration into the national liquid fuels pool.
According to the department of energy, cabinet-approved incentives such as a 50% rebate on the general fuel levy for biodiesel manufacturers and a three-year accelerated depreciation on the investment had failed to attract investors, and so a more effective regulatory support was needed. The date for the start of the blending has taken into consideration the time needed to finalise the biofuels pricing framework, which will happen before the end of this year.
According to the department of energy, cabinet-approved incentives such as a 50% rebate on the general fuel levy for biodiesel manufacturers and a three-year accelerated depreciation on the investment had failed to attract investors, and so a more effective regulatory support was needed. The date for the start of the blending has taken into consideration the time needed to finalise the biofuels pricing framework, which will happen before the end of this year.
Egypt and OPEC sign power plant deal
Egypt and the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)'s Fund for International Development (OFID) have signed a US 70-million dollar loan agreement to finance the South Helwan Power Plant.
The agreement is aimed at meeting growing electricity needs, especially as Egypt has suffered recently from repeated power cuts caused by high summer time energy use. Prime minister Hazem el-Beblawi, electricity minister Ahmed Imam and international co-operation minister Ziad Bahaa el-Din attended the signing ceremony. The project will benefit households, agricultural workers, businesses and industries, and in turn, help create jobs and boost the economy.
The agreement is aimed at meeting growing electricity needs, especially as Egypt has suffered recently from repeated power cuts caused by high summer time energy use. Prime minister Hazem el-Beblawi, electricity minister Ahmed Imam and international co-operation minister Ziad Bahaa el-Din attended the signing ceremony. The project will benefit households, agricultural workers, businesses and industries, and in turn, help create jobs and boost the economy.
Nigeria hands over privatised plants
Nigeria has handed over its spun-off power companies to private buyers who paid a total of US 2,5-billion dollars in a series of open auctions. President Goodluck Jonathan presented the share certificates and licences to the new owners of six power generation companies and nine distribution firms that had paid up in full, at a ceremony in Abuja.
The public companies now gone private are among the 18 successors of the now defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria. At least US$20-billion dollars have gone into several power reform programmes in the past 14 years of civilian rule, much of it wasted. The holding company was split into six generation, 11 distribution and one transmission companies. All the generating and distributing firms were sold separately
The public companies now gone private are among the 18 successors of the now defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria. At least US$20-billion dollars have gone into several power reform programmes in the past 14 years of civilian rule, much of it wasted. The holding company was split into six generation, 11 distribution and one transmission companies. All the generating and distributing firms were sold separately
Monday, 7 October 2013
Kenya seeks investors to build coal, natural gas power plants
As part of it’s +5000Mw in 40 months
program, Kenya has invited bids
from investors for the development of two power plants with a combined output
of up to 1,800 megawatts (MW) from coal and natural gas, according to details
from Ministry of Energy and Petroleum.
The ministry said it is seeking investors to develop a 700-800 MW natural gas
fired plant near the port city of Mombasa.
“The proposed project
will be a 700-800MW power plant to be located on a 300 acre parcel of land at
Dongo Kundu or any other appropriate location between Mombasa and Kilifi,” the
ministry said in a statement.
The ministry
also plans to build a 900 to 1,000MW coal power plant in Lamu. Already, the
government wants to develop a US$5.5 billion mega port in Lamu to link
landlocked South Sudan
and Ethiopia to the Indian Ocean.
This bidding
process marks the beginning of a road map that will see Kenya increase electricity generation
capacity by 5,000MW from the current 1,644MW to 6,700 MW in 40 months. On the
list of projects expected to increase demand for electricity includes
construction of the standard gauge railway, setting up of Konza city and other
ICT towns.
For more details on the tender
documents, please click on the link below.
Also planned
is construction of an oil pipeline from South Sudan to Lamu as well as the
mining industry, irrigation projects and demand by the newly formed county
governments.
“We are also
going to upscale power purchase agreements, which have been taking too long to
conclude as well as deal with transmission and distribution challenges,” said
Joseph Njoroge, Principal Secretary-Ministry of Energy and Petroleum. With
increased generation capacity, the generation cost in $ cents is projected to
reduce from 11.30 to 7.41.
Commercial and
industrial tariff will also fall from US$c14.14 to US$c9.00 and domestic tariff
from US$c19.78 to US$c10.45.
The 5000 MW
additional generation capacity will be developed from geothermal-1646 MW,
Natural Gas 1,050 MW, Wind 630 MW and coal 1,920 MW, all under the framework of
public private partnership (PPP).
According to
Davis Chirchir, Cabinet Secretary, Ministry Of Energy and Petroleum the country
has a power deficit of 500 MW
at present and 1,664 MW that has been developed over the past 50 years.
“What we have was designed for supply
to homes and not industry and that is why many manufacturers are either
struggling or have shut their operations, relocating to cheaper destinations,”
he said
The Ministry is expected to shortly publish requests for proposals inviting
Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to participate in generation while the
Government concentrates in transmission and distribution.
The government
has already allocated Sh80 billion in the 2013/14 budget, a large bulk of which
would be used in transmission and distribution.
With capacity
of 1,664 MW against a maximum-recorded demand of about 1,410MW, Kenya is
under pressure to boost power generation as east Africa’s biggest economy is
expected to expand at more than 5 per cent.
The government
last month said it wants to add 5,000 MW to Kenya’s power output by 2017 to accelerate
growth, which is expected to push Kenya’s power demand up to 15,000MW by
2030.
For more details on the tender
documents, please click on the link below.
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