Africa's Energy Bedfellows

Quietly, 2008 marked a turning point for some relationships that Africa has with the East.
There was the influx of Chinese workers in the mines in the Congo and Zambia. But a more important relationship that has developed, almost unnoticed (well, through the media) has been on the energy front.

Trans-Sahara Scheme
Last year, President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua of Nigeria was enthusiastic about the EU's offer of assistance on the proposed construction of the $21 billion Trans-Saharan gas pipeline from Nigeria to Algeria.

The project, which stretches a distance of 4,300 kilometers across the Sahara desert - Nigeria (1,050km); Niger (750km), and Algeria (2,500km) when completed will connect Nigeria's gas reserves to Europe via Algeria's Mediterranean coast.

Nigeria
Nigeria does not have a real gas infrastructure to speak off and this has been because of the reluctance of the international oil companies to fund the project. So Nigeria has looked at other players and one of them is Gazprom.

This March, there should be a 50/50 $2.5 billion Joint Venture between Gazprom and Nigeria. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) signed, in September 2008, a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Russian gas export monopoly on joint venture projects.

It is not surprising to see Gazprom continued effort to dominate gas supply in Europe especially by tapping into Nigeria's gas, which did not have any domestic/international market.

There has been a myriad of activity in Nigeria though. The LNG terminal built on Bonny Island plus other terminals under development and the additional promise of the West African Gas Pipeline to to Benin, Togo and Ghana.

Kenya
On Facebook & Twitter last week, most people living in Nairobi had a theme going on in their messages: power outages / black outs.

Demand outstrips supply in Kenya by a huge margin. Kenya has only about 1200 MW of power in its grid. To put this in perspective, this would be enough to supply about 960,000 US homes. If that is hard to imagine, South Africa has 40,o00 MW of power. So, there is a quagmire right there: a country cannot grow without increased capacity.

Kenya has not had loyalty to any particular country and has been looking all over the place for partners to help in the development of the energy sector. There is a big push for nuclear power and it is not surprising that President Mahmoud Ahmednajad jetted in the country last week to sign pacts on energy and trade. During the visit, Kenya signed 12 trade pacts with Iran on roads, water, oil and nuclear energy among others.

Now what is needed is a clear energy policy regarding nuclear energy especially since from the past month, we are aware how Kenya is ill-equipped to deal with emergency disasters.