Page 6 - AfrOil Week 30 2021

AfrOil COMMENTARY AfrOil

Lobito tender decision by year-end

as Sonangol eyes 2026 start-up

Sonangol has provided more detail about how the development of the Lobito refinery will play out

FOLLOWING the recent launch of a tender Sonangol predicts that start-up operations on
for investment in Angola’s Lobito oil refinery some units will begin in 2025 or 2026.
WHAT: in Benguela Province, more details have been He added that the facility will provide 8,000
The company anticipates provided about the process and state-owned direct and indirect jobs during the construction
that the results of the Sonangol’s expectations. phase, and another 4,000 jobs once operations
ongoing investment Speaking to Radio Nacional de Angola begin.
tender for Lobito will be (RNA), project co-ordinator Guiomar Correia Meanwhile, Sonangol’s director of strategy
announced in December. said that the 200,000 barrel per day (bpd) unit and portfolio management Helder Nuno Lis-
would be completed in 2025 or 2026 at a total boa said that participants in the tender will be
WHY: cost of $6bn. expected to present their financial and techni-
With early engineer- He explained that he anticipates that the bid- cal capacity for carrying out a project as well as
ing work expected to ding process will continue until around Decem- illustrating their track record in similar invest-
commence as early as
mid-2022, the company ber, at which point Sonangol expects to make an ment and construction projects. He added that
is eyeing the beginning announcement about the results of the tender the tender process would be subject to extensive
of start-up operations in and name the winner. due diligence in line with Sonangol’s operating
late 2025 or 2026. Thereafter, the company has allocated three standards.
or four months to carry out the necessary con-
WHAT NEXT: tract negotiations with the winning entity, Process
The project is seen cost- which, as first reported by AfrOil in late June, The tender process was launched on July 9 dur-
ing a total of $5bn and will become the owner of the new facility. ing a ceremony attended by Minister of Mineral
will require an investor Attention will then turn to ensuring private Resources, Oil and Gas Diamantino Azevedo.
with deep pockets to finances are in place for the development of the Also in attendance was Benguela Governor Luís
bring it to fruition. refinery. Nunes, along with local and international pro-
Once this is complete, he said, “we will be in spective investors.
a position to commence the engineering work”. A 1.5-square km site has been allocated for
Correia noted that this could take around a the plant just north of Lobito.
year to complete; however, early physical works As previously conceived, the refinery would
could begin as soon as the end of the second be built in two phases – the first comprising
quarter of 2022. low-conversion units aimed at satisfying local
Construction for a refinery of this type and demand, and the second upgrading the plant’s
size is anticipated to take 48-52 months to reach complexity to produce higher-quality fuels suit-
mechanical completion. With this in mind, able for export.

The refinery will be built in the port of Lobito (Photo: WikiMedia)

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