Page 7 - DMEA Week 23 2022

DMEA FINANCE & INVESTMENT DMEA

ANPG sees Angola attracting $66bn

in investment over next five years

AFRICA ANGOLA’S National Agency for Petroleum, intended to support efforts to make Angola’s
Gas and Biofuels (ANPG) said on June 8 that hydrocarbon sector more competitive over
it expects the country’s hydrocarbon sector to the next five years. “Angola is seen by interna-
attract $66bn worth of investments over the next tional operators as a competitive market in the
five years, about 40% more than in the previous oil sector. The bids that we have already carried
five-year period. out, either through public tender or through
In a statement, ANPG reported that Alcides direct negotiation, prove this, mainly due to
Andrade, director of its Strategic Planning the wide participation of interested parties,” he
Office, had made this figure public at the Sev- commented. “But obviously, we have points for
enth Consultative Council of Angola’s Ministry improvement, and we are focused on doing it to
of Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas (MIREM- be as good as the best.”
PET) on June 2-3. MIREMPET convened the To this end, he said, ANPG will be carrying
meeting with the aim of analysing the sector’s out studying several options for making Angola’s
performance during the 2018-2022 interval. oil industry more competitive, including amend-
Andrade said at the meeting that this pro- ing the taxation regime to optimise the financial
jected sum of $66bn covered investment in burden, changing the oil contract model in order
operational and administrative activities, as to minimise the impact of fluctuations in world
well as spending on upstream exploration and oil prices and reducing the duration of the com-
production. petitive bidding process.
It will also cover the extension of existing pro- With respect to the final point, Andrade
duction licences for the offshore Blocks 0, 15, 17 noted, the periods between the beginning of the
and 18, he added. bidding process, contract awards and concession
But he also emphasised that more than 50% contract signings often add up to about a year.
of the total would be dedicated to exploration “These are aspects that we have to improve so
and production work. that Angola can occupy the top positions of com-
Andrade further stressed that ANPG petitiveness in the sector globally,” he declared.™

COMPANIES

Banks being lined up for Luberef IPO

MIDDLE EAST SAUDI Aramco and Jadwa Industrial Invest- more than doubled across its two facilities from
ment Co. are reported to be lining up banks to 550,000 tonnes per year to 1.2mn tpy. The Group
work on the planned initial public offering (IPO) II base oils facility at Yanbu’ is by far Luberef’s
of their domestic base oils joint venture (JV). largest, with a capacity of 710,000 tpy. The facil-
Sources said this week that an IPO is planned ity is home to a hydrocracker and units for wax
for the second half of 2022, with Citigroup, isomerisation, hydrogen recovery, sulphur
HSBC and local bank SNB Capital all advising recovery and gas treatment, as well as a 40,000
on the listing. barrel per day vacuum distillation unit (VDU)
Saudi Aramco Base Oil Co. (Luberef) was and a 12,500 bpd propane de-asphalting unit.
formed in 1976 as a 70:30 JV between Aramco In early March, Luberef signed a memoran-
and super-major ExxonMobil, before the US dum of understanding (MoU) with Air Liquide
giant sold its 30% stake to Jadwa Industrial Arabia to evaluate opportunities for the produc-
Investment Co. in 2007. When news first broke tion of green hydrogen using electrolysis fed by
of the plans in April, it was reported that Jadwa renewables at the Yanbu’ Industrial Basin. In a
would sell its share, which would be listed on press release, Luberef said the project would pro-
the local Tadawul All Share Index (TASI), the vide green hydrogen for its Lubricant Value Park
Riyadh stock exchange. (LubeHub) project.
According to Aramco, “Luberef produces A month earlier, the Saudi firm’s CEO, Tareq
high-quality base oil at an optimised grade mix Al-Nuaim, signed a long-term agreement with
from its two production facilities that are strate- Alaa El Batal, his counterpart at the Egyptian
gically located in Jeddah and Yanbu’.” General Petroleum Corp. (EGPC) at an event in
Following the 2018 commissioning of a $1bn Cairo for the supply of essential oils for the local
expansion of the latter, Luberef’s production was market.™

Week 23 09•June•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P7