Wind Power

Savannah Energy plans 250 MW wind farm in Niger

Signing of the MoU on March 28 between Andrew Knott, CEO, Savannah Energy and H.E. Mahamane S. Mahamadou, Minister of Petroleum, Energy and Renewable Energies of Niger. Picture: SAVE.

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Savannah Energy, operator of some of the most prolific oil blocks in Niger, is currently planning to construct and operate the country’s first wind farm in its Tahoua Region. The project was subject to the execution of an agreement yesterday between Savannah Energy and the Ministry of Petroleum, Energy and Renewable Energies of the Republic of Niger.

The wind farm will be structured as an independent power producer (IPP) and is currently in feasibility study. It is expected to be sanctioned in 2023 for a potential commissioning in 2025.

Initial plans include the installation of 60 wind turbines with a total power generation capacity of up to 250 MW.

The project’s timeline notably seeks to align it with the development of the West African Power Pool (WAPP) that would facilitate the exchange of electricity between West African markets via a high voltage interconnection network. Niger is scheduled to be connected to the WAPP in 2023 via a 330 kV line financed by the World Bank, the African Development Bank (AfDB), the European Union and the Agence française de Développement (AfD).

Subject to the planned feasibility study confirming the ultimate scale of the project, the Tarka wind farm could produce some 600 GWh a year. Its construction could also support 500 jobs, displace carbon emissions by 400,000 tonnes of CO2/year and help reduce the cost of electricity for Nigerien households and industries.

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Angola: Eni’s discovers at least 500m additional barrels at Ndungu field

Eni has upgraded its field estimate at Ndungu on Block 15/06 offshore Angola at 800 million to 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent in place following the successful drilling of the Ndungu-2 appraisal well. The Ndungu-1 discovery well had been drilled in 2019 with original oil in place (OIIP) of 257m barrels according to Sonangol. With Ndungu-2, Eni has potentially discovered an additional 500m to 700m barrels of oil equivalent, confirming the tremendous success of its infrastructure-led exploration strategy in the country. Ndungu-2 marks the seventh discovery of Eni on Block 15/06 in four years. The adoption of an enabling environment by the administration of João Lourenço had led to the relaunch of the exploration campaign in 2018, which resulted in discoveries at Kalimba-1 and Afoxe-1 the same year. These were followed by Agogo-1, Ndungu-1 and Agidigbo-1 in 2019, and Cuica-1 in 2021. Source: MinFin Angola Out of these, Agogo benefited from incentives by being granted marginal status under the Presidential Legislative Decree 6/18 of May 2018. It was put on stream and started producing in January 2020 as a tie-back to the N’Goma FPSO. It is now being subject to a full field development planning with a new FPSO hub in the making. Cuica was next and achieved first oil in August 2021 from the Armada Olombendo FPSO. The vessel also started receiving production from the Cabaça North field in September 2021. Ndungu-1 came next, with first oil achieved in early 2022 via an early production scheme tied-back to the N’Goma FPSO. A second producer well is now expected at Ndungu in Q4 2022, according to Eni. Full details on the exploration and development activities on Block 15/06 are available in the “Projects” section within your Hawilti+ research terminal.