Related Links: AECOM Takes a Charge Related to Libyan Uprising Libya has revived its $100-billion housing infrastructure development program and re-contracted US firm AECOM Technology Corp. to manage its implementation and offer advice to the ministry of housing and utilities. The revival of North Africa's region's largest home-building program by state-owned Housing and Infrastructure Board (HIB) come at a time when many foreign companies are returning to Libya. Many firms fled during the bloody revolution of 2011 that toppled strongman Muammar Gaddaffi. Companies are trooping back as the new government intensifies renegotiation of stalled contracts. AECOM announced last week it has signed
Cameroon, one of West Africa’s promising economies, has announced a 5% salary boost for workers in the construction sector but failed to address their concerns over safety issues and over a simmering dispute over more Chinese workers filling domestic jobs in the industry.According to local media reports, Labour and Social Security Minister Gregoire Owona said the salary increase targets workers in both public and private construction sectors and that contractors are obligated to implement the new pay raise “with immediate effect.” He also said the daily transportation allowance would rise as well.One survey estimated that the average pay for construction
Photo courtesy of Eskom The $20.3-billion Kusile power project is one of the largest in southern Africa. Despite inroads by the Chinese, construction firms from Europe and the U.S. maintained a major share of African infrastructure projects, a new survey reports.Consultant Deloitte says U.S. and European companies are building 115 out of 332 projects of at least $50 million in size. Those projects have a total value of $233 billion.State-owned firms based in the People’s Republic of China, which have taken significant African market share in recent years, remain behind, with 38 projects.Private African-based construction contractors have taken 45, and
Map by Shem Oirer/ENR Art Department Tanzania's planned 480-kilometer highway project includes a 53-km section cutting through Serengeti National Park. Related Links: Tanzania Drives On With Planned Road Through Serengeti Park Serengeti Road Project Halted for Wildlife Study A recent court ruling clearing the way for a legal challenge to Tanzania's delayed plans for a 53-kilometer road across the world-famous Serengeti National Park has endangered the proposed project's construction.The regional East Africa Court of Justice (EACJ) ruled, in August, that because the Serengeti National Park is located within both Tanzania and Kenya, the court has the jurisdiction to hear the
Photo courtesy of wikimapia. Angola LNG says its plant has a capacity of 5.2 million tons (6.8 Bcm) per year; 360,000 cm of full-containment LNG storage, LPG and condensate storage; and a loading jetty sized to accommodate ships up to 210 cm. Related Links: Ernst & Young Report on Opportunties for Natural Gas Development in Africa IGU World NLG Report 2013 Africa hopes to ramp up its liquefied natural gas (LNG) capacity by an additional 88.7 metric tonnes per year by 2020, despite the withdrawal of leading U.S. energy company Chevron Corp. from one of the largest liquefaction plants on
Photos courtesy of SASOL Sasol existing chemicals plant in Lake Charles, La.; the South African firm's planned new facilities would be adjacent. Sasols flagship gas-to-liquids facility in Qatar, which it owns in joint venture with Qatar Petroleum, cost much more than its original $5-billion construction estimate, one Wall Street analyst says. Related Links: Sasol Advances U.S. Ethane and Derivatives Project Western Canada Eyes Gas-to-Liquid Production Facility South Africa integrated energy and chemical company Sasol is pushing ahead with its planned gas-to-liquids (GTL) facility and ethane cracker projects in Louisiana, with the latter's final investment decision expected by the first quarter
Photo Courtesy of GE Algeria has one of GE's largest installed equipment bases, including more than 400 gas turbines, 340 compressors and 35,000 kilometers of inspected pipelines. Related Links: East Africa Power Transmission Project Ready for Takeoff After Funding Approval Algeria’s national electricity-and-gas company, Sonelgaz, has, through one of its subsidiaries, signed three power-generation equipment-supply contracts with Fairfield, Conn.-based GE worth $2.7 billion as the country prepares to meet increasing domestic energy consumption, now estimated at 30.9 billion cu meters.The three contracts, awarded on Sept. 23 by Sonelgaz’s Société Algérienne de Production de l’Electricité (SPE Spa), are for the supply
Related Links: Obama Announces $7-Billion 'Power Africa' Plan Efforts To Light Up Africa Gain Momentum Ajoint venture of Spain's Grupo Clavijo and Germany's Schletter GmbH has won a contract to install photovoltaic racks for South Africa's 96-MW Jasper Solar Energy Project, which counts Google as one of its investors.It is Google's first renewable-energy play on the continent, where PV energy projects are emerging fast. A consortium, led by California-based SolarReserve, is developing the site at which Yingli solar panels are to be installed under an engineering, procurement and con-struction contract, led by Spain-based Iberdrola Engineering and South Africa's Group Five.
Built in 1972, the Inga I dam in the Democratic Republic of the Congo does not operate at capacity due to lack of maintenance. At this dam site and at a newer one, replacement of aging turbines has been on hold for a decade due to a lack of financing. Related Links: The World Bank-Africa region The Democratic Republic of the Congo has launched a new initiative to fast-track construction of the delayed $12-billion Inga III hydropower project on Africa's Congo River despite skepticism that the project may never be implemented.The World Bank, however, appears more supportive of a new
Somalian militants attacked the Turkish embassy in Mogadishu in late July, but the country remains committed to transportation projects there. Turkish development firms are building a new $10-million airport terminal in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu. Construction by three Turkish firms of a new $10-million airport terminal in Somalia and a 23-kilometer road connecting it to the capital city, Mogadishu, will continue to completion despite a deadly late-July embassy attack by a militant group linked to al-Qaeda.The July 27 attack on the Turkish embassy building in Mogadishu, which left one Turkish guard dead and three others seriously injured, has injected some uncertainty