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which made an unsuccessful attempt to sell its own Over in Egypt, Italy’s Eni has reached deals
minority stake to Russia’s Lukoil earlier this year. with Spain’s Naturgy and its Egyptian partners
that pave the way for the restart of the shuttered
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping Damietta LNG plant.
Africa’s oil and gas sector then please click here for Damietta LNG is capable of exporting 5mn
NewsBase’s AfrOil Monitor. tonnes per year (tpy) of LNG but was made
idle in 2012, at a time when Egypt did not have
DMEA: South African refinery blast enough gas to meet its domestic needs, lead-
An explosion rocked an oil refinery in Durban, ing to a long-running legal dispute. Its owner
South Africa, on December 4, injuring seven is SEGAS, which is 80%-controlled by Union
people. The blast occurred at 05:10 GMT and Fenosa Gas (UFG), a 50:50 joint venture between
the ensuing fire was put out by 06:45 GMT. Local Eni and Naturgy.
residents described seeing a large fireball at the Under the agreements, UFG’s interest will
centre of the refinery, followed by billowing be divided between Eni and Egyptian Natu-
black smoke. ral Gas Holding (EGAS), leaving Eni with a
The extent of damage to the facility, capable of 50% stake in Damietta LNG and EGAS with
processing up to 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) of 40%. Egyptian General Petroleum Corp.
oil, is unclear as of press time. Its operator Engen, (EGPC) controls the remaining 10%. Naturgy
majority-owned by Malaysia’s Petronas, issued a will receive a series of cash payments worth
statement saying it was investigating the cause $600mn in total in return.
of the incident. Damietta LNG should start back up in the
South Africa hosts six refineries in total, four first quarter of 2021, Eni has said. Egypt now has
of which run on crude oil and two on synthetic excess gas supply, thanks to the launch of the off-
fuel. But the country is a net importer of petro- shore Zohr field in 2017.
leum products. Another fire broke out in July at
a 100,000 bpd refinery owned by local fuel sup- If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
plier Astron Energy in Cape Town, leaving two the downstream sector of Africa and the Middle East,
dead and seven injured. then please click here for NewsBase’s DMEA Monitor.

P18 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 49 10•December•2020