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Local residents described seeing a large fireball at The country’s existing oil and gas platforms,
the centre of the refinery, followed by billowing stationed at 20 fields, will be allowed to continue
black smoke. extracting fossil fuels. But no new licensing
The extent of damage to the facility, capable of rounds will be held under the agreement. This
processing up to 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) of includes a round that was kicked off last year and
oil, is unclear as of press time. Its operator Engen, attracted bids from France’s Total, Sweden’s Lun-
majority-owned by Malaysia’s Petronas, issued a din Petroleum, Hungary’s MOL and the UK’s
statement saying it was investigating the cause Ardent Oil.
of the incident. Many in Danish politics have argued that
South Africa hosts six refineries in total, four continued oil and gas exploration is incompat-
of which run on crude oil and two on synthetic ible with the country’s climate goals, which are
fuel. But the country is a net importer of petro- among the most ambitious in the world. How-
leum products. Another fire broke out in July at ever, Denmark may also find itself increasingly
a 100,000 bpd refinery owned by local fuel sup- dependent on oil and gas imports as a result of
plier Astron Energy in Cape Town, leaving two dwindling domestic supply.
dead and seven injured. Further north, Norway’s Equinor reported a
. Over in Egypt, Italy’s Eni has reached deals second fire at one of its facilities in December 2
with Spain’s Naturgy and its Egyptian partners in little more than two months. The fire broke out
that pave the way for the restart of the shuttered during the afternoon of December 2 at Equinor’s
Damietta LNG plant. Damietta LNG is capable coastal methanol plant in Tjeldbergodden, with
of exporting 5mn tonnes per year (tpy) of LNG no injuries sustained. The state oil firm said it
but was made idle in 2012, at a time when Egypt was investigating the causes and consequences Denmark will end
did not have enough gas to meet its domestic of the incident, as is Norway’s Petroleum Safety
needs, leading to a long-running legal dispute. Authority (PSA). all new oil and
Its owner is SEGAS, which is 80%-controlled by The Tjeldbergodden plant is the largest
Union Fenosa Gas (UFG), a 50:50 joint venture facility of its kind in Europe, accounting for a gas exploration in
between Eni and Naturgy. quarter of the continent’s methanol production. the North Sea
Under the agreements, UFG’s interest will be The incident comes as another investigation is
divided between Eni and Egyptian Natural Gas proceeding relating to a fire that broke out at
Holding (EGAS), leaving Eni with a 50% stake Equinor’s Hammerfest LNG terminal in late
in Damietta LNG and EGAS with 40%. Egyptian September. The PSA has said it founded “serious
General Petroleum Corp. (EGPC) controls the breaches” of regulations at the facility.
remaining 10%. Naturgy will receive a series of Lastly, Poland’s PKN Orlen has unveiled
cash payments worth $600mn in total in return. plans to invest some PLN140bn (€31.4bn) over
Damietta LNG should start back up in the the next decade, shifting its focus from its core
first quarter of 2021, Eni has said. Egypt now has oil refining business to petrochemicals and clean
excess gas supply, thanks to the launch of the off- energies.
shore Zohr field in 2017. The state-owned company followed in the
footsteps of a number of others in the Euro-
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping pean oil industry with a pledge in September to
the downstream sector of Africa and the Middle East, become emissions-neutral by 2050. Its commit-
then please click here for NewsBase’s DMEA Monitor. ment contrasts with that of Poland, the only EU
state which has not promised to bring its emis-
EurOil: Denmark’s upstream deadline sions to zero by 2050.
Denmark will end all new oil and gas exploration
in North Sea under an agreement between Par- If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
liament and the government, as part of a broader Europe’s oil and gas sector then please click here for
plan to phase out fossil fuel production by 2050. NewsBase’s EurOil Monitor.

Week 49 10•December•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P9