Page 8 - DMEA Week 46 2021

DMEA POLICY & SECURITY DMEA

ONHYM to launch downstream division

AFRICA MOROCCO’S National Board of Hydrocarbons the country the largest energy importer in North
and Mines (ONHYM) is seen setting up a down- Africa.
stream division to manage domestic natural gas The refinery remains mothballed but while
infrastructure, according to reports this week. there are plans between Russian development
Speaking to S&P Global Platts, company bank VEB and the local Marita Group to build a
sources said that the division would be respon- new 100,000-bpd refinery, such a move appears
sible for completing works on the Morocco-Ni- to be counter-intuitive, given that SAMIR’s facil-
geria Gas Pipeline (MNGP) through which gas ities appear to available at a fraction of the cost of
from Nigeria will be exported to Europe, travers- constructing a greenfield unit.™
ing 13 countries.
He said “new entity created to take care of the
downstream business [is] on the way”.
The North African country is developing net-
works to distribute gas to industrial hubs where
vehicle and aviation industries are expanding.
“The industrial sector in Morocco is grow-
ing fast and gas will be an important part of this
growth,” the source added.
Morocco has estimated its conventional and
unconventional gas resources at 300 trillion
cubic feet (8.5 trillion cubic metres) in place. The
country has received “a lot of interest” in a pro-
posed floating storage regasification unit (FSRU)
off the Atlantic coast, according to the source
who noted that a project to transmit electricity
generated from solar and wind to the UK is also
under evaluation.
Last year, a Moroccan judge accepted the
state’s offer to rent storage facilities at the
200,000 barrel per day (bpd) SAMIR refinery in
Mohammedia.
The units have a storage capacity of 2mn
cubic metres which equates to 80 days of Moroc-
can demand.
SAMIR’s closure in 2015 made Morocco fully
dependent on refined product imports, making

Nigeria workers union

threatens nationwide strike

AFRICA THE Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natu- salaries and title benefits by other companies.
ral Gas (Nupeng) has issued a two-week strike The union said that contract workers work-
notice that could lead to fuel scarcities in the ing in oil mining licence (OML) 42 of the Nige-
coming weeks, The Cable reported on Tuesday, ria Petroleum Development Co. (NPDC) were
November 16. being continuously owed salaries and allowances
Nupeng said on Monday it would launch for upwards of eight to 10 months, according to
“nationwide industrial action” if certain wel- The Cable.
fare and membership-related issues were not “Nigeria Agip Oil Co. (NAOC) and its con-
“adequately and conclusively addressed and tractors are also owing contract workers’ salaries
resolved” within the next 14 days. and allowances for upwards of 10 months,” the
Among the many issues listed, Nupeng out- statement said. Nupeng is one of the 46 indus-
lined the alleged termination of contract work- trial unions formerly affiliated to the Nigeria
ers by Chevron Nigeria workers because they Labour Congress and an affiliate of IndustriAll
had joined the union, and the non-payment of Global Union headquartered in Geneva.™

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