Two giant projects that will help Africa’s pursuit of energy independence took major steps forward.The Dangote oil refinery in Nigeria — already the continent’s biggest — aims to more than double its capacity, potentially making it the world’s largest: It is central to efforts for Nigeria, a major oil producer, to capture more of the value of its natural resources.

The French energy giant TotalEnergies, meanwhile, said it would resume efforts to relaunch a $20 billion liquefied natural gas project in Mozambique, years after a militant attack forced construction to stop.In part, Washington’s friendliness to fossil fuels is giving the continent “breathing space to… escape energy poverty,” one expert wrote in a Semafor column