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According to Gasfin, the terminal will deliver “there is a great opportunity for Access to sup-
250mn cubic feet per day (2.58bn cubic metres port markets switching to natural gas as a clean,
per year) of gas. cheap transition fuel as we push developments
“The new terminal at Tema is an innovative to support a greener, more efficient energy
approach to securing reliable and cost-efficient economy.”
gas supply,” Martijn Proos, a director at Ninety EAIF represents part of the Private Infra-
One, which manages EAIF, said in a statement. structure Development Group (PIDG), which is
“The investment by EAIF will contribute to backed by seven donor countries and the World
reducing carbon emissions, contributing to Bank. ™
Ghana’s long-term energy needs and strength-
ening its economic stability and economic
development efforts.”
The Tema facility, he continued, “answers
Ghana’s need for greater fuel security and opti-
mal supply. The project will reduce the cost of
power generation for Ghana’s power sector,
provide an adequate margin of fuel reserves and
benefit the ongoing expansion of the country’s
electricity and gas grids.”
Helios partner Ogbemi Ofuya suggested
Access LNG could provide additional LNG pro-
jects in sub-Saharan Africa.
The current low price of gas, he said, means The Tema project involves a floating regasification unit (Image: Dreifa)

Angola commits to partial

privatisation of Sonangol

ANGOLA THE government of Angola, Africa’s sec- key sectors of economic activity such as energy,
ond-largest crude oil producer, is preparing to mining and agriculture. But it has not rushed to
sell off part of its stake in the national oil com- put Sonangol up for sale, perhaps because of the
pany (NOC) Sonangol. crucial role oil and gas development plays in the
Finance Minister Vera Daves de Sousa made economy. OPEC data show that oil production
an announcement to that effect last week, dur- and related activities account for around 50% of
ing a virtual conference hosted by Bloomberg. the country’s GDP, as well as 89% of all exports.
She did not reveal the size of the stake slated for Officials in Luanda are hoping that the pri-
privatisation but noted that the government vatisation drive will help fuel economic growth.
intended to list shares in Sonangol and Endi- The country has suffered setbacks this year, not
ama, the national diamond-mining concern, least because the sharp drop in energy demand
on the stock exchange. and oil prices that followed the coronavirus
De Sousa stated that Luanda hoped to launch (COVID-19) pandemic have exacerbated long-
the sale before mid-2022. “We are aiming for the term trends toward a decline in crude output.
end of 2021 or the beginning of 2022 to start the Those trends were already evident in 2019, when
privatisation process of large companies such as Sonangol made no money at all from its core
Sonangol or Endiama,” she declared. upstream operations. ™
She indicated that the government had not
yet decided exactly when the sales would take
place. “[The timing] depends on how quickly it
will be possible to organise these companies and
the guarantee of compliance with ‘due diligence’
– compliance with international procedural
rules – to capture the interest of quality inves-
tors,” Bloomberg quoted her as saying.
Angola is unloading part of its holdings in
Sonangol and other state-run entities within
the framework of its privatisation programme,
which is slated to continue through to the end of
2022. To date, it has sold off 30 of the 195 compa-
nies included in the programme, which covers Shares in Sonangol will go up for sale by early 2022 (Image: Sonangol)

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 48 02•December•2020