Page 6 - AfrElec Week 39

AfrElec INVESTMENT AfrElec
AfDB walks away from coal
AFRICA
THE African Development Bank will no longer support coal projects in Africa and has instead committed itself to fighting climate change.
African Development Bank President Akin- wumi Adesina said in UN Climate Action Sum- mit in New York that the bank was getting out of coal, stressing that, “coal is the past, and renewa- bleenergyisthefuture.”
He told world leaders that the bank would close coal-fired power plants and build the “larg- est solar zone in the world” in the arid Sahel belt.
In the Sahel region of Africa, the bank aims to facilitate up to $20bn of investment in solar and clean energy that would provide connect 250 million people in 11 countries to 10,000 MW of generating capacity.
“It will allow us to power the whole of the Sahel using the power of the sun,” Adesina said.
This was the first time that the bank had pub- licly announced any divestment from coal.
“There’s a reason God gave Africa sunlight,” said Adesina.
The AfBD has considered supporting the Lamu coal project in Kenya, although the ven- ture is now frozen in the Kenyan courts.
The bank last supported a coal project 2015, was it lent $4mn to a 125MW coal-fired power
plant in Senegal.
A key element of the bank’s policy is its
$500mn green baseload scheme, which will be rolled out in 2020 and is set to yield $5bn of investment that will help African countries transition from coal and fossil fuel to renewable energy, said Adesina.
Meanwhile, Adesina said the bank aimed to support $25bn of wider funding commitments between 2020 and 2025, half of which would be ring-fenced to support climate projects.
This would fund projects such as the Africa Disaster Risk Facility, which would ensure that countries get the resources they need to insure themselves against catastrophic risk events.
The bank is also supporting early warning systems so that African governments know of emerging climate threats.
The UN summit stressed that greenhouse gas emissions must fall in a bid to limit global warm- ing to about 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-indus- trial temperatures.
“We need to link climate change to a new model of development — fair globalisation — with less suffering, more justice, and harmony between people and the planet,” said UN secre- tary-general Antonio Guterres.™
GAS-FIRED GENERATION
Total set for Train 7 FID in Nigeria
NIGERIA
ARNAUD Breuillac, Total’s president of explo- ration and production, said last week that his company expected to make a final investment decision (FID) on the Train 7 project by the end of this year.
THIS will allow the Nigeria LNG consortium to bring the new production train on stream in 2023, he said in New York during Total’s Investor Day.
He did not say exactly when the FID would be made. Nigeria LNG representatives have said previously that the deadline will fall on October 31, 2019.
He also highlighted the importance of the expansion scheme, noting that the construction of a seventh production train at the Bonny Island gas liquefaction plant would raise output from its current level of 22mn tonnes per year. According to previous reports, Train 7 will be able to turn out 8mn tpy of LNG.
The project will help Total achieve its goal of raising LNG’s share of its total production to 22% by 2025, Breuillac said. LNG accounted for 14% of the company’s output in 2018, he noted.
Total is one of four shareholders in Nigeria
LNG, along with Nigeria National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC), Royal Dutch Shell (UK-Nether- lands) and Eni (Italy). NNPC, with 49%, is the largest single stakeholder in the group.
Last month, the group named SCD – a con- sortium formed by Saipem (Italy), Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co. (South Korea) and Chiyoda (Japan) – as its contractor for engi- neering, procurement and construction (EPC) work on Train 7. Once the FID milestone is reached, SCD will be able to start work and wrap up construction of the new production train in four to five years.
Tony Attah, the CEO of Nigeria LNG, said recently that the consortium intended to finance the $10bn expansion project through a combina- tion of debt and equity.
In an interview with Bloomberg, he said Nigeria LNG had already begun talks with commercial lenders – including major Nigerian banks such as Zenith Bank and Guaranty Trust Bank – with the intent of securing $2bn worth of loans. The group hopes to attract the remaining $8bn from foreign banks and export credit agen- cies, he said.™
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 39 02•October•2019