Page 7 - AfrOil Week 25 2021

AfrOil COMMENTARY AfrOil

By contrast, Godwin Emefiele, the governor to AfrOil. “While the refinery is nearing com-
of the CBN, said recently that he expected pletion, any further delays or disruption could
artificially low fuel prices to come to an end. prolong Nigeria’s woes and the government
He pointed to expectations of an increase in is well-advised to push forward with its pro-
domestic petroleum product supplies following gramme to rehabilitate existing downstream
the commissioning of the 650,000 barrel per day infrastructure while encouraging the develop-
(bpd) Dangote refinery near Lagos, scheduled ment of new facilities.”
for next year. In the meantime, the renewal of the petro-
Meanwhile, Ian Simm, principal advisor at leum product subsidies has continued to be a
consultancy IGM Energy, expressed reserva- burden on Nigeria’s economy.
tions about leaning so heavily on a single refin- As the Daily Trust newspaper noted last
ery project, no matter how large. week, the government spent NGN197.74bn
“From urea production to feedstock for ($481mn) in the first quarter of this year to
plastics manufacturers and the end of subsi- maintain fuel prices at below-market levels. If
dies, Abuja appears to be putting numerous crude prices continue to rise, the bill is sure to
sizeable eggs in the Dangote basket,” Simm said go up. ™

PIPELINES & TRANSPORT
FSRU arrives offshore Senegal

to launch LNG-to-power project

SENEGAL KARMOL, a 50:50 joint venture between Kar- The FSRU will receive shipments of LNG,
powership (Turkey) and Mitsui OSK Lines regasify the LNG and then pipe the resulting
(Japan), has completed the delivery of a marine volumes of gas to the Karadeniz Powership
LNG import terminal to Senegal. Ayşegül Sultan. In turn, the latter vessel will use
The terminal, which is the first floating the gas to generate electricity for consumption
storage and regasification unit (FSRU) built in Senegal.
by Karmol, reached its destination near Dakar The Karadeniz Powership Ayşegül Sultan has
last week. It is now in position to implement an a capacity of 235 MW and is currently using 220
LNG-to-power plan that will supplement Sene- MW, or almost 94% of the total, under a contract
gal’s generating capacity and facilitate a shift to with Senegal’s national power provider Senelec.
cleaner-burning fuels. Its output accounts for 15% of all electricity con-
The plan calls for the FSRU, known as the sumed in the West African country.
LNGT Powership Africa, to establish a pipeline According to ALP, the Dutch marine ser-
connection to the Karadeniz Powership Ayşegül vices company that towed the LNGT Powership
Sultan, a vessel owned by Karpowership that has Africa from Singapore to Senegal, the FSRU will
been providing Senegal with extra generating be able to start work quickly, since it is already
capacity since 2019. carrying some LNG.

The FSRU can hold more than 125,000 cubic metres of LNG (Photo: Karmol)

Week 25 23•June•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P7