Page 7 - AfrOil Week 05 2021

AfrOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT AfrOil

It identified the new shippers in question as decline at the Doba fields in Chad, it added.
PétroChad Mangara, an affiliate of Vitol, an The Chad-Cameroon pipeline follows a
international commodities trading firm; CNPC 1,070-km route from south-western Chad to
International Chad, a subsidiary of state-run the Kome-Kribi FSO. It was built by ExxonMo-
China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC); and bil under a public-private partnership agree-
Overseas Private Investment Corp. (OPIC), a ment and began operating in 2003, before the
US government development finance entity that US super-major’s exit from Chad. The link is
is now part of US International Development operated by Cameroon Oil Transportation Co.
Finance Corp. (IDFC). (COTCO) and has a throughput capacity of
These three entities accounted for fully 71% 225,000 bpd.
of the crude flowing through the pipeline during During the first eight years of the pipeline’s
the January-November period, it said. They have operations, SNH collected a yearly transit fee
been supplying an increasingly larger share of of XAF85.5bn ($116.69mn) for oil shipments
total throughput since 2014, when the US-Ma- along the Chad-Cameroon route. However, it
laysian consortium set up by ExxonMobil, was able to negotiate a higher fee in 2013, and
Chevron and Petronas began to see output levels another increase followed in 2018. ™

INVESTMENT
Nigeria signs off on $3bn methanol project

NIGERIA NIGERIA’S national oil company (NOC) operation.
NNPC and its partners have taken a final invest- “The project will have significant economic
ment decision (FID) on the country’s first meth- and development impact on the country, includ-
anol production plant. ing revenue generation and import substitution
The project, with a $3bn price tag, will con- for the methanol needs of the country that is
sume around 14 trillion cubic feet (400bn cubic currently 100% imported,” he said.
metres) of unexploited gas reserves found at NPPC is partnered in the project with the
oilfields in the Niger Delta Brass area. The plant Nigerian Local Content Management Board
itself will be built on Brass Island in Bayelsa and engineering group DSV Engineering. Their
State. operating joint venture is Brass Fertiliser & Pet-
Nigeria is on a push to expand development rochemical Co (BFPCL).
of its gas resources, estimated at some 5.3 trillion On its website, BFPCL says the project com-
cubic metres proven in size. It wants to build out prises upstream development as well as pipe-
its petrochemicals sector to help achieve this lines and a gas processing plant. It will involve
goal. two development phases and aims to produce
“Today’s significant milestone of achieving 1.7mn tonnes per year of methanol and 1.3mn
an FID symbolises the full support of the federal tpy of urea by 2025.
government for the construction and operation Nigeria wants to expand the role of gas in
of the first methanol plant in Nigeria,” NNPC other areas, including power and heat genera-
tweeted on January 29. tion, vehicle transport and household cooking.
It will attract $3bn in foreign direct invest- The government declared 2020 the “Year of Gas”,
ment (FDI) and create 30,000 jobs during its but progress has stumbled because of the coro-
construction and a further 5,000 during its navirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

NNPC and its partners signed an agreement in late January (Photo: TheCable.ng)

Week 05 03•February•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P7