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company hopes to establish Jinja as a hub for fuel series of delays, the company is yet to provide a
traders serving other countries in the region, definitive timeframe for the project’s completion
including South Sudan, Rwanda and Burundi, and commissioning.
as well as the eastern regions of the Democratic
Republic of Congo. (DRC). If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
the downstream sector of Africa and the Middle East,
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping then please click here for NewsBase’s DMEA Monitor.
Africa’s oil and gas sector then please click here for
NewsBase’s AfrOil Monitor. Upstream battle in South Asia
India’s state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp.
DMEA: Aramco bulk-buys chem tankers (ONGC) has said it is considering raising up
Saudi Aramco’s shipping unit Bahri has ordered to INR450bn ($6.1bn) worth of debt, following
10 chemical tankers from South Korea’s Hyun- recent reports that the developer would struggle
dai Mipo Dockyard (HMD) in a deal worth to finance its capital expenditure objectives.
$410mn. The first of the 50,000 DWT, medi- ONGC said on August 24 that its board
um-range tankers will be delivered in the first would meet on September 1 to consider raising
quarter of 2022. Their addition will bring Bahri’s debt via bank loans as well as foreign and domes-
total vessel count to 101. tic debt instruments.
The expansion of Aramco’s fleet is part of the The company said in its stock exchange fil-
Saudi Vision 2030 national strategy, aimed at ing that it would consider establishing and/
diversifying the country’s economy away from or extending a European Medium Term
crude oil sales. Bahri had sought to make a foray Note (EMTN) programme up to INR350bn
into LNG shipping by chartering vessels to carry ($4.71bn). The board will also decide on an addi-
US LNG, but this plan was shelved after the oil tional loan of up to INR100bn ($1.35bn) lever-
price collapse. aged against its bank term deposits.
In neighbouring Kuwait, state-owned KNPC ONGC has reportedly been considering
has reached a milestone at its Clean Fuels Project expanding its debt pile following the collapse in
(CFP), which involves upgrading its refineries international oil prices and the government’s cap
to produce Euro-5 standard fuels. Texas-based on pricing of domestic natural gas production.
Fluor said its joint venture with South Korean Across the border in neighbouring Pakistan,
firms Daewoo Engineering & Construction and meanwhile, state-owned Oil and Gas Develop-
Hyundai Heavy Industries, FDH JV, had com- ment Company Ltd (OGDCL) has plugged and
pleted the provisional handover of installations abandoned a dry hole on its Guddu block.
at the Mina Abdullah refinery to KNPC. The Umair NW-1 exploration well, which
The 270,000 barrel per day Mina Abdullah was drilled to a total depth of 804 metres, failed
and 466,000 bpd Mina Al-Ahmadi refineries are to produce commercial quantities of oil or gas,
both undergoing modernisation and expansion. junior partner Jura Energy said on August 20.
Once the work is completed, their combined The Canadian independent said: “Based
throughput capacity will reach 800,000 bpd. on the hydrocarbon shows during drilling, log
KNPC is also building a 615,000 bpd grassroots results and interpretations, it was concluded that
plant, Al-Zour, as part of the CFP. But after a gas accumulations existed in the targeted Pirkoh

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 34 26•August•2020