Page 20 - AfrOil Week 01 2021

AfrOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES AfrOil

Nigerian authorities are eager to expand the use There are also plans for a second 20,000 bpd
of modular refineries, as a means of commer- crude-processing train, which would bring
cialising small-sized fields that have been passed overall refining throughput to 50,000 bpd.
over for development, as well as reducing the Waltersmith also signed a technical sup-
country’s fuel import bill. Despite its status as port agreement in November with the United
Africa’s biggest crude producer, Nigeria has only Nations Industrial Development Organisation
limited working refining capacity. (UNIDO) and the United Nations Economic
Waltersmith’s refinery produces diesel, kero- Commission for Africa (UNECA) on estab-
sene, naphtha and residual fuel oil. The company lishing an industrial park. This park would host
is already working on an expansion, involving various manufacturing plants that use hydrocar-
the construction of a 25,000 bpd condensate bons as feedstock, including for petrochemicals
refinery. production. ™

Kenya, Eni discuss biofuel

production at Mombasa plant

KENYA KENYA has held talks with Italian oil major Eni such a move.
on the potential conversion of its mothballed The 80,000 barrel per day (bpd) Mombasa
refinery in Mombasa to biofuel production. refinery, built in 1959, was closed down in 2013
Eni said on December 18 that its CEO Clau- as it was unable to compete with fuel imports.
dio Descalzi had talked about the project and The facility’s then-operator, India’s Essar Energy,
various other green initiatives in a meeting blamed the government for not enforcing a
with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. They deal to make local suppliers buy fuel from the
discussed a multi-year plan to collect waste and plant. A $1.3bn upgrade plan aimed at mak-
agricultural residue, which are ideal feedstocks ing the refinery competitive had earlier been
for biofuel production, Eni said. These raw abandoned.
materials could be used to develop biodiesel, Tullow Oil had been storing crude from the
bio-jet fuel and bio-ethanol, the Italian firm said, South Lokichar area at the site until July this
in line with its “circular economy technologies.” year, when an early oil pilot production scheme
The plan covers a study on converting the was ended.
Mombasa refinery to this purpose. Doing so Eni added it had signed amendments to three
would give Kenya a leadership role in Africa’s production-sharing contracts (PSCs) offshore
decarbonisation drive, Eni said. Mombasa. The company has rights to six off-
Faced with a collapse in fuel demand this shore blocks in Kenya in total. The Italian major
year, a number of refiners in Europe and the US struck a deal in July last year to transfer 13.75%
have unveiled plans to convert their facilities to interests in blocks L-11A, L-11B and L-12 to
biofuel production rather than shutting them Qatar Petroleum (QP), subject to approval by
down. But few African refiners have considered the Kenyan authorities. ™

The Mombasa refinery suspended operations in 2013 (Image: KPRL)

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