Page 17 - AfrOil Week 01 2021

AfrOil INVESTMENT AfrOil

Koang was a member of a team of ministry offi- Five new blocks
cials that reviewed the offer that GreenComm Reports of the contract’s cancellation emerged
submitted jointly with Innovative Clear Choice shortly after Ethiopia’s Ministry of Mines and
Technologies (ICCT), a Texas-based company, Petroleum revealed that it had included five
in 2018, Quartz Africa noted. potentially oil- and gas-bearing blocks in a
ICCT, which was just as lacking in credentials new batch of subsurface licence areas offered to
as its partner, was disbanded in February 2020, investors.
but its disappearance did not serve as a barrier As of press time, the ministry had not
to the signing of the GTL contract. (Nor did it revealed the names of these exploration blocks.
clear up confusion over the question of whether Officials in Addis Ababa have said, though, that
GreenComm had agreed to study the project or the sites are located in Gambella, Ogaden, Rift
build the GTL plant itself; the company’s public Valley and South Omo.
statements on the matter have been contradic- As of press time, no further information was
tory and confusing.) available. ™

PERFORMANCE
Sudan’s only working oil refinery begins

maintenance programme

SUDAN SUDAN’S only working oil refinery began a recurring problem throughout the year. To alle-
70-day maintenance routine on December 20, viate these difficulties, Sudan in April allowed
leaving the economic crisis-stricken country’s the private sector and banks for the first time to
consumers dependent on fuel imports. import fuel for the transportation, mining and
The 100,000 barrel per day (bpd) plant in industry sectors.
Sudan’s capital Khartoum has served as the The government is yet to say when it intends
Northeast African state’s only domestic source to end its fuel subsidy regime completely. It is
of fuel since a plant at Port Sudan was closed in under pressure to do so by the World Bank, and
2013. the IMF and other international financiers. But
Its maintenance run will drive up fuel costs the authorities are reluctant to adopt auster-
and will likely exacerbate shortages. The coun- ity measures too hastily for fear of putting too
try has been struggling with shortages and long great a financial burden on the population. The
lines at gasoline pumps for much of this year, as change in pricing policy in October led to pro-
authorities have had difficulty coming up with tests erupting across the country.
the foreign currency to pay for imports. Sudan reached an agreement in 2018 with
Sudan’s government is looking to phase out Russian state exploration company Rosgeologia
fuel subsidies to reduce its budget deficit. As part on developing a 200,000 bpd greenfield refinery
of this effort, it introduced a two-tier pricing sys- in Port Sudan. But no timeline for work on this
tem in October, under which imported gasoline facility has yet been announced. ™
and diesel are sold at more than double the price
of domestic supplies.
While work continues at the Khartoum refin-
ery, however, only imported gasoline and diesel
will be available to consumers at filling stations,
Sudan’s energy ministry said in a statement on
December 20. Any fuel that is produced locally
will be saved for the agriculture, electricity, pub-
lic transportation and security sectors.
The maintenance programme was previ-
ously scheduled to begin in September but was
delayed. The pricing policy for fuel after the
work has concluded has not been decided on
yet, a ministry representative told Reuters.
Sudan’s most severe shortages occurred in
February, because of a blockage in a pipeline that
pumps crude oil from fields in Kordofan State
to the Khartoum refinery. But the government’s
limited foreign currency reserves have been a The maintenance run may exacerbate fuel shortages (Image: Khartoum Refinery)

Week 01 06•January•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P17