Page 13 - AfrOil Week 33

AfrOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT AfrOil

NNPC invites bids for

repair of refinery pipelines

NIGERIA NIGERIAN National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) Lot 1 covers infrastructure around Bonny and
has invited investors to bid to repair pipelines Port Harcourt, including a 210-km products
and depots that serve its oil refineries in Kaduna, pipeline; Lot 2, meanwhile, relates to facilities
Warri and Port Harcourt, it announced on around Escravos and Warri; Lot 3 is for infra-
August 11. structure in Kaduna and Kano, including a 604-
The refineries, built in the 1970s, are in need km oil pipeline from Warri to Kaduna, while Lot
of extensive repairs and modernisation. They 4 is for work in the Atlas Cove and Mosimi areas.
can operate at only a fraction of their capacity, Companies can bid for two of the lots but
achieving only 5.5% utilisation last year. NNPC can only be selected for one. NNPC will provide
closed them down completely earlier this year the companies that pre-qualify with geotech-
to reduce losses. nical and geophysical surveys and front-end
The pipelines that feed the plants with oil are engineering design (FEED) studies it has
also in a state of disrepair, as a result of years of undertaken.
what NNPC described as “incessant” oil theft As Nigeria’s refining throughput has stead-
and vandalism. Their refurbishment will be car- ily fallen over the years, its fuel imports have
ried out separately to the work at the refineries. steadily crept up. This has placed a considera-
Bidders will be required to fund the repairs ble financial burden on NNPC. The national oil
themselves and operate the pipelines for a company sells the supplies to consumers at sub-
“defined period” so they can recoup their invest- sidised rates, although reforms are now under-
ments, NNPC said. During that time they will way to liberalise fuel prices.
collect oil transit fees. Besides the overhaul of its existing capacity,
The pipelines will also need to be equipped Nigeria is also awaiting the launch of the 650,000
with “intrusion detection” systems, and buried barrel per day (bpd) privately owned Dangote
deeply, to make siphoning off oil illegally more refinery next year.
difficult. Interested parties will need to submit But the project, the largest of its kind in
their expressions of interest (EoIs) by Septem- Africa, is already running years behind sched-
ber 18. ule. Coronavirus (COVID-19) disruptions
The projects are being offered in four lots: mean further delays are probable. ™

INVESTMENT
Russia’s Lukoil to give up deal in Senegal

SENEGAL THE Russian oil major Lukoil will not be able Congo-based Marine XII for $768mn, 5% in
to carry out the acquisition of a 40% stake in UAE-based Ghasha, and in 2019 increased its
the Rofisque, Sangomar and Sangomar Deep stake in Nigerian extraction Block 132 from 18%
(RSSD) project in Senegal, Kommersant daily to 40%.
reported on August 17.
Australia’s Woodside Energy indicated pre-
viously that it might seek to block Lukoil from ™
acquiring a stake in RSSD, by exercising its right
to pre-empt the sale of the stake now owned by
Cairn Energy (UK).
Woodside has now indicated that it intends
to follow through with this plan and will pre-
empt the sale, thereby raising its stake in RSSD
to 75%.
Independent Lukoil is finding it challenging
to expand its resource base in Russia, as offshore
and strategic oilfields are reserved for state-
owned majors Rosneft and Gazprom.
Most recently, Lukoil acquired 25% in Woodside’s stake in Sangomar will rise to 75% (Image: Cairn Energy)

Week 33 19•August•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P13