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The Moroccan government has announced that it expects to attract approximately MAD110bn (US$30bn) in the domestic energy sector by 2030 amidst plans to build 10 GW of renewable power capacity as well as a new LNG regasification project to meet its growing power needs. Between 2 GW and 3 GW of renewable capacity will be added every three years until 2030 and 40% of the total renewable power generation will come from solar, 40% from wind and the remaining 20% from hydropower projects.

Morocco aims to diversify its energy sources and plans to develop its first LNG import terminal in Jorf Lasfar on the Atlantic coast at a total cost of US$4.5bn. A tender will be launched later in 2019. Upon completion, the project is expected to entail a jetty, a 7 bcm/year regasification plant as well as an associated gas-fired power plant. It should be commissioned as early as 2025.

Global oil and gas company Shell has decided to leave the 10 Mt/year Baltic LNG project in Ust-Luga near Saint Petersburg (Russia), developed in partnership with Gazprom, after the Russian gas giant recently decided to integrate the LNG project into a large gas and LNG complex worth more than RUB 700bn (US$11bn) and to set up a 50-50 special-purpose company, RusKhimAlyans, with RusGazDobycha…

The Equatorial Guinea government has announced the launch of a new auction offering 26 oil and gas licenses, including 24 offshore licenses and 2 onshore licenses. Two of them already entail confirmed resources, i.e.

According to the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA), the US power generation capacity from combined-cycle (CCGT) power plants surpassed that from coal-fired plants and became the technology with the largest power capacity in the United States in 2018. As of January 2019, the CCGT installed capacity totalled 264 GW, compared with 243 GW for coal-fired power capacity.

The Egyptian Nuclear Regulation and Radiological Authority (ENRRA) has granted a site approval permit to the Nuclear power plants Authority (NPPA) for the development and construction of the El Dabaa nuclear power plant on the Mediterranean coast, 170 kilometres west of Alexandria, reckoning that the site and its specific conditions meet both domestic and international requirements.

The Estonian government has decided not to issue a building permit for the 600 MW Saaremaa offshore wind project in the Baltic Sea, citing national security concerns.

The commissioning of the 1,650 MWe Olkiluoto-3 (OL3) nuclear power project in Eurajoki (western Finland) may be pushed back by an additional two months, due to delays in checking changes to automated systems. According to this new planning, fuel would be loaded into the reactor core in August 2019 and the first connection to the grid would take place in December 2019.