Page 13 - AfrOil Week 29 2022

AfrOil POLICY AfrOil

“With today’s presidential action, diesel will con- without such state interventions of fuel subsidy.
tinue to retail at KES140, petrol at KES159.12 Kenya has been a net importer of refined oil
and kerosene at KES127.94 per litre in Nairobi,” products since September 2013, when the Kenya
State House Spokesperson Kanze Dena said in a Petroleum Refineries Ltd (KPRL) in Mombasa
press release on Thursday (July 14). “His Excel- closed down after exhausting the last stock of
lency the President (Kenyatta) understands that Murban crude imported from Saudi Arabia.
high fuel prices pose a significant challenge for Essar Energy of India and Kenya’s govern-
every Kenyan household and collectively on the ment each owned 50% of the plant. The closure
economy and our way of life.” led to scrapping a planned $1.2bn upgrade of
The announcement came ahead of the KPRL.
expected publication by the Energy Petroleum Oil products from KPRL were sold in Kenya,
Regulatory Authority (EPRA) of new record exported to Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda,
high pump prices -- taking into the exchange Burundi, northern Tanzania and eastern Dem-
rate of the Kenyan shilling to the US dollar, and ocratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
rising sea transport and insurance costs -- after In response to the challenges, the govern-
the Treasury announced that it would gradually ment has over the last year implemented a
withdraw the fuel subsidy to ease pressure on fuel stabilisation programme that has offered
government coffers. reprieve to Kenyans at the pump through a sub-
Pump prices reflect the cost of pumping sidy of KES101.852 bn to date.
refined fuel inland from the Mombasa seaport “As a caring government, we will continue to
by pipeline to Nairobi and beyond by road trans- roll out similar actions so as to provide further
port, among other factors. direct relief to all Kenyan families and establish
Dena said retail pump prices in Nairobi the necessary safeguards for protecting Kenyan
would have been KES 193.64 for diesel, KES consumers from further increases in the cost of
209.95 for petrol and KES 181.13 for kerosene living,” said Dena. ™

PROJECTS & COMPANIES
TotalEnergies announces 25-year

extension of Berkine PSC in Algeria

ALGERIA TOTALENERGIES (France) said on July 19
that Algerian authorities had agreed to extend
the production-sharing contract (PSC) cover-
ing Block 208 and Block 404a, two onshore sites
in the Berkine basin in the eastern part of the
country.
In a statement, TotalEnergies reported that
it had signed an agreement outlining the terms
for a 25-year extension of the PSC with its three
partners – Occidental Petroleum (US), Eni
(Italy) and Sonatrach, the national oil company
(NOC) of Algeria. It did not reveal all the terms
of the agreement, but it said that the document
conformed with the tenets of Algeria’s Hydro-
carbon Law, which took force in 2019.
Under the new agreement, it said, the part-
ners will be able to focus on developing the
blocks’ liquid hydrocarbon resources – that is,
crude oil and gas condensate – while also exam-
ining opportunities to increase utilisation and
monetization of associated gas. This is expected
to create new openings for boosting Algerian gas The PSC covers Hassi Berkine and two other oilfields (Image: TotalEnergies)
exports to Europe, TotalEnergies commented.
The French major did not say how much carbon intensity of development operations at
associated gas the partners might be able to the fields within these licence areas through the
extract from Blocks 208 and 404a. However, implementation of a dedicated emissions reduc-
it did report that it intended to minimise the tion programme.

Week 29 20•July•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P13