Page 9 - AfrElec Week 24

AfrElec GENERATION AfrElec

Dangote to inaugurate new $2bn plant

NIGERIA NIGERIAN industrial conglomerate Dangote The Indorama plant exports around 70% of
will shortly inaugurate a new $2bn granulated its production, while the rest is sold locally.
urea fertiliser plant in Lagos, it said on June 10. Notore’s production is mostly consumed
The plant has a production capacity of 3mn domestically.
tonnes per year (tpy), and uses gas supplies from Dangote’s new facility is anticipated to pro-
Nigerian Gas Co. and Chevron Nigeria as its vide around 25% of its urea for the domestic
feedstock. “The mechanical completion of the market and the rest for overseas. Traders who
fertiliser plant is over; the test phase is over; and spoke with ICIS expressed doubt that the plant
now we are in the commissioning phase,” Dan- would start operating on a commercial basis any
gote’s executive director for strategy, portfolio sooner than the end of the year. “Stability could
development and capital projects, Devakumar only come by December-January,” one trader
Edwin, told local press. said. “Initially, all new plants produce off-spec
The coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis will product and that takes time to stabilise.” “Realis-
not affect progress at the project, Edwin said, tically, we expect completion of the first Dangota
although the plant will not be ready to market line by the end of 2020; it is unlikely it will hap-
its first products until 90 days after its power tur- pen before,” another said.
bines come online. The director did not say when “Commercial output should be available in
this was expected. the second quarter of 2021 or possibly the first
Nigeria already has two urea plants in opera- quarter.” Another company, Brass Fertiliser and
tion – the 1.4mn tpy Indorama unit at Port Har- Petrochemical (BFPCL), plans to build a 1.3mn
court and the 500,000 tpy Notore facility at the tpy urea faclity and 1.7mn tpy methanol plant in
port of Onne. A second 1.6mn tpy train at Indo- the state of Bayelsa. ™
rama will come on stream in December 2020.

NUCLEAR

South Africa looks into

revitalising nuclear sector

SOUTH AFRICA SOUTH Africa’s Department of Mineral of 2,500MW at a pace and scale the country can
Resources and Energy (DMRE) has issued a afford,” the RFI notes.
Request for Information (RFI) to enable it to However, critics noted that nuclear power is
assess nuclear technologies that could be con- no longer an economic option for South Africa,
sidered for a national programme to build particularly with the falling cost of solar and
2,500MW of new nuclear capacity. wind power across the world.
The programme could include conventional “The DMRE in its strategic and economic
pressurised water reactors (PWRs), small mod- plans is promoting the role of nuclear energy
ular reactors (SMRs) or a blend of technologies. (mainly small modular reactors) and clean coal
Publication of the RFI is the start of prepara- (with carbon capture and storage, CCS), but
tory work to develop plans for a future nuclear these technologies are neither price-compet-
programme, Mineral Resources and Energy itive nor, in the case of small nuclear, are they
MinisterGWede Mantashe said. currently commercially available,” said Anton
“Given the long lead-time of building addi- Eberhard, Professor Emeritus at the Power
tional new nuclear capacity, upfront planning is Futures Lab, University of Cape Town.
necessary for security of energy supply to soci- “None of South Africa’s IRP electricity plans
ety,” he said. have had nuclear power in the least-cost mix; it
Mantashe said in May the DMRE would start has been forced in as a “policy adjustment”. In a
work on a roadmap for nuclear procurement, fiscally constrained post-COVID environment
which is in line with South Africa’s 2019 Inte- the question has to be asked: what is Energy
grated Resource Plan. MinisterGWede Mantashe up to,” Eberhard
“It is envisaged that the South African added.
Nuclear Power Programme may comprise a Two PWRs at Koeberg, operated by state-
blend of baseload power combining both con- owned utility Eskom, began commercial oper-
ventional PWR and SMR technologies to a total ations in the mid-1980s.™

Week 24 18•June•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P9