Page 10 - AfrOil Week 03 2020
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AfrOil POLICY AfrOil
THE agreement aroused anger in Greece, which said that Turkey and Libya were ignoring the presence of the island of Crete.
Ankara hopes to leverage to secure explo- ration rights in the eastern Mediterranean. It is presently working to help the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) with- stand attacks by forces loyal to a warlord based in eastern Libya. Erdogan said on January 19 that Turkey was yet to send troops to help the GNA but had sent military advisers. There have been reports to the contrary, with some sources claiming that Turkey has sent hundreds of allied Syrian militia fighters to dig in around Tripoli.
Turkey is also involved in big rows with Cyprus over the rights to offshore oil and gas blocks around the divided island. On January 19, Cyprus accused Turkey of being a “pirate state,” attacking Ankara’s exploratory drilling off its coastal waters a day after the EU issued its own warning.
“Turkey is turning into a pirate state in the eastern Mediterranean,” read a statement from the Cypriot presidency. “Turkey insists on going down the path of international illegality,” it added, according to AFP.
Earlier, EU foreign policy spokesman Peter
Stano said: “Concrete steps towards creating an environment conducive to dialogue in good faith are needed. The intention by Turkey to launch further exploration and drilling activi- ties in the wider region goes, regrettably, in the opposite direction.”
Turkey has been a major source of aid to Somalia since a famine in 2011. Ankara aims to bolster its influence in the Horn of Africa to compete with Gulf rivals like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Turkish engineers are helping build roads in Somalia, while Turkish officers have trained Somali soldiers.
Erdogan was quoted by NTV as saying: “There is an offer from Somalia. They are say- ing:‘Thereisoilinourseas.Youarecarryingout these operations with Libya, but you can also do themhere.’Thisisveryimportantforus.There- fore, there will be steps that we will take in our operations there.”
In late December, a group of Turkish engi- neers was among those hit in a blast at a check- point in Mogadishu that killed at least 90 people. At the weekend, a car bombing wounded some 15 people, including Turkish contractors, in Afgoye in an attack claimed by Somali insur- gents, Reuters reported.
PROJECTS & COMPANIES
Equatorial Guinea seeks Nigeria’s help in developing small refineries
EQUATORIAL GUINEA
EQUATORIAL Guinea will work with Nigerian partners to build small-scale modular refiner- ies, in order to emulate a similar project already underway in Nigeria’s east Niger Delta Basin.
The Nigerian Contact Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) announced on January 19 it would team up with Nigeria’s Wal- tersmith Petroman to help Equatorial Guinea develop the plants. The co-operation was agreed upon during a site visit on January 18 arranged by Waltersmith at its 5,000 barrel per day (bpd) Ibigwe refinery in Imo State, due online in May.
Equatorial Guinea’s Minister of Mines and Hydrocarbons Gabriel Mbaga Obiang Lima attended the event as a guest.
“I am truly impressed by the nature and advancement of this project ... I share our indus- try’s belief that it is high time for Africans to start refining and processing our own crude at home to maximise our energy security, create local jobsandaddvaluetooureconomies,”Limasaid during the event. “Creating the right public-pri- vate partnership will be of great benefit to all countries and business leaders.”
Small-scale refineries are seen as an attrac- tive option for processing crude oil at marginal
oilfields into higher-end products. Waltersmith, a joint venture between Nigeria’s Waltersmith & Associates and Canada’s Petroman, owns 70% of the project, while NCDMB controls a 30% stake on behalf of the Nigerian state. Its capacity is set to ramp up to 30,000 bpd within two years.
“We cannot continue to export crude oil. We should start processing our products and we are watching what Nigeria is doing and we want to replicate them,” Lima continued.
Nigeria expects to launch a second modular refinery, the 12,000 bpd Azikel hydro-skim-
ming plant in Bayelsa State, in 2021. NCDMB bought a stake in the venture last year, to help
with investment.
Nigeria’s NPDR operates a modular refinery in Ogbele (Photo: NGDelta.com)
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