Africa Business Briefs

SA power margin tighter in 2011 than 2010
LONDON – South Africa’s power margin between supply and demand will be a maximum 3 000 MW in 2011, even tighter than in 2010’s World Cup year, state utility acting chairman and chief executive Mpho Makwana said. Eskom’s failure to secure a 35 per cent hike in electricity tariffs had increased the shortfall for investments needed in new plants to more than R40 billion, Makwana told Reuters. Eskom has bought power from independent power producers including Sasol and is in urgent talks with mining giant BHP Billiton on the power supply contracts to BHP’s South African aluminium smelters.
The two smelters in KwaZulu Natal, use more power than Johannesburg when operating at full capacity.

Heavy losses threaten Nigeria’s state oilABUJA – Losses and liabilities totalling more than 2,5 billion dollars are pushing Nigeria’s giant state oil firm NNPC towards extinction, Oil Minister Rilwanu Lukman warned. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is ‘running at a loss of more than 200 billion naira (US$1,32 billion dollars) with contingent liabilities’ of more than US$1,25 billion dollars, he told senior officials of the organisation. ‘If this trend is not reversed, the corporation as we know it today will cease to exist,’ Lukman warned in an address on the impending reorganisation of the company. A Petroleum Industry Bill before the parliament seeks to transform NNPC into a profit-making and efficient organisation, divesting it of some regulatory roles and make it purely a commercially viable outfit. Lukman said the next 18 months would be ‘critical and indeed the most challenging period in the history of this corporation and Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.’Bannerman reports possible resultsWINDHOEK – Bannerman Resources Limited has announced that positive results have been received from recent infill drilling in the Anomaly A area of the Etango deposit southwest of Rio Tinto’s Rössing Uranium Mine and to the west of Paladin Energy’s Langer Heinrich Mine. Chief Executive Officer of Bannerman Len Jubber said more good results have also been obtained close to surface from infill and extensional drilling in the Oshiveli and Onkelo areas in the northern part of the Etango deposit. According to him, further drilling on the Etango deposit has confirmed the continuity of the high-grade mineralisation inside the starter pit area at Anomaly A. The results are expected to increase the resource confidence in this area to measured status, with the resource update due for release in March this year. Following the successful delineation of the Etango resource, the Bannerman geological team will now operate as two groups – one focusing on integrating the resource model into the Etango project development, and the other on regional exploration of Bannerman’s Etango, Swakop River and Botswana exploration license areas.
Extract suffers financial blowPERTH – Extract Resources, owners of Rössing South, has revealed a net loss of US$13,4 million for the six months ended December 31. The deficit follows a loss of US$13,2 million in the same period one year prior. The Perth-based miner says its exploration costs have increased significantly. Extract says the reason its costs have increased is because of its feasibility study on the Rössing South uranium project in Namibia. Extract says it has cash on hand of US$99,3 million.
SA net reserves dip in FebJOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s net gold and foreign exchange reserves fell slightly in February due to a firmer US dollar, official data showed. The central bank said in a statement posted on its website the international liquidity position fell to US$38,281 billion at the end of February from US$38,63 billion in January. Gross reserves inched down to US$39,439 billion in February from US$39,489 billion. Currency reserves fell by US$100 million to US$32,251 billion while special drawing rights holdings stood at US$2,735 billion. The central bank still holds a large proportion of its reserves in US dollars but has moved recently to increase holdings of euro and sterling. George Glynos, managing director at ETM, said reserves will likely rise next month after South Africa launched a US$2 billion Eurobond earlier last week.ICoast, Ghana in oil disputeACCRA – The discovery of oil reserves off the coast of Ghana has kicked off a row with Ivory Coast which is claiming part of its neighbour’s maritime area, a Ghanaian minister said. The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation announced last month the discovery of an ‘extensive deepwater petroleum province’ offshore Ghana. The Dzata 1 find by Russia’s oil giant Lukoil and its partner Houston-based Vanco Energy is about 100 kilometres (60 miles) away from the Jubilee oilfields, where significant hydrocarbons have also been found. Ivory Coast is now laying claim to part of Ghana’s maritime space, Ghana’s Lands and Natural Resources Minister Collins Dauda said on independent radio Citi FM. The maritime border in the Gulf of Guinea was never formally demarcated, but for years the neighbours had respected ‘a median line’ between them, he said. But Ivory Coast had written to Ghana complaining it is violating this informal boundary.Cosatu may strike before OctJOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s powerful Cosatu trade union federation could start a nationwide strike before October over large electricity price increases granted to utility Eskom, a union leader said. He would not say whether industrial action could take place before or during the soccer World Cup finals, which South Africa is hosting in just under three months. Unions, consumers and businesses have condemned energy regulator Nersa’s decision to allow state-owned Eskom an average 25,5 per cent annual price increase over the next three years.
Zambia in talks with Glencore on oilLUSAKA – Zambia has chosen Glencore Energy as the preferred bidder to supply 1,4 million tonnes of petroleum feedstock to the southern African country over two years, the procurement authority said. Zambia is the continent’s top producer of copper and uses a lot of diesel in the mining operations that are the backbone of its economy. ‘The Ministry of Energy and Water Development is expected to report back to the central tender committee within 21 days after which a decision will be made whether to award the contract to Glencore or not,’.
CNOOC, Total pitch oil plans to UgandaKAMPALA – Global petroleum firms Total and China National Offshore Oil Corporation, CNOOC, have presented their investment plans in Uganda’s emerging petroleum industry to the government. The two companies are currently in the process of entering a partnership with UK’s Tullow Oil to jointly operate exploration areas in western Uganda. The east African country struck commercial deposits of oil in 2006 and after four years of frenetic exploration and appraisal activity, Tullow says small scale commercial production will begin later this year. Tullow is currently awaiting government approval of its proposed purchase of Heritage Oil’s 50 percent stake in their jointly owned exploration areas 1 and 3A. It already wholly owns exploration field 2.
EU, Mauritius sign largest aid deal yetPORT LOUIS – The European Union signed its largest aid deal yet with Mauritius on Thursday, saying the US$127 million package would bolster the island’s economic and social reforms. Official government forecasts predict the almost US$10 billion economy – consistently one of the most prosperous and stable in Africa – will grow by 4,3 per cent this year compared with an estimated 2,8 per cent in 2009, as a global recovery spurs its tourism and exports such as textiles and sugar. The government introduced an economic stimulus plan at the end of 2008 and analysts say the Indian Ocean island has weathered the global economic storm better than expected. The EU money is conditional on Mauritius meeting targets in sugar reform, governance, macroeconomic stability, and a long-term energy strategy, Mauritian Finance Minister Ramakrishna Sithanen said at the signing ceremony.