Page 11 - AfrOil Week 01 2021

AfrOil POLICY AfrOil

Outgoing Secretary-General Barkindo, at left, and his successor al-Ghais, at right (Photo: OPEC)
“I have hands-on experience of what the JTC (COVID-19) when it last met, a JTC report on
does, what the JMMC does. I’ve attended all January 2 played down the impact of the Omi-
these meetings since 2017, I haven’t missed a cron variant. It said Omicron “is expected to
single meeting, even when I had a broken leg,” be mild and short-lived, as the world becomes
he said. better equipped to manage COVID-19 and its
Al-Ghais’ appointment was welcomed by related challenges,” suggesting that the group
Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Sal- was unlikely to make any knee-jerk reactions.
man, who offered his “cordial congratulations.” This indeed turned out to be the case when
Meanwhile, the new secretary-general was the group reached a quick decision on January
quoted by Al Arabiya as saying that he expected 4, proceeding with plans to ease production cuts
global oil demand to reach pre-pandemic levels by another 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) next
by the end of the year. month. But with some members having strug-
With OPEC+ having been nervous about gled to reach their targets, only a fraction of this
the impact of the mutating coronavirus is expected to make its way on to the market. ™

PROJECTS & COMPANIES
NNPC deals with fire at Port Harcourt

refinery, reports no major damages

NIGERIA NIGERIAN National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) (EPC) work to rehabilitate the refinery under a
said this week that it had extinguished a fire that $1.5bn contract awarded in April 2021. This
had broken out at its Port Harcourt Refining will see the facility, which has been offline since
Complex (PRHC) on January 1 without any 2019, return to 90% of its 210,000 barrel per day
extensive damage to the facility. capacity by 2023. It is comprised of a 60,000 bpd
Speaking to reporters, Garba Muhammad, unit built in 1965, known as Area 5, and a newer
NNPC’s general manager for public affairs, said unit built in 1989 that can process 150,000 bpd.
that the fire had been caused by a spark while a The Italian company had carried out a
33,000-litre truck was discharging naphtha into $50mn, six-month “integrity check” in 2019,
one of the refinery’s tanks. with fellow Italian firm Eni contracted as tech-
“The fire affected only the discharging truck nical adviser. This work included equipment
and the pump bay,” Muhammad said. He added inspection at the site, as well as “relevant engi-
that safety protocols had been implemented, neering and planning activities.”
noting that “no other property was damaged.” Meanwhile, work is also ongoing to rehabili-
Italy’s Maire Tecnimont is currently carrying tate NNPC’s facilities at Warri and Kaduna that
out engineering, procurement and construction can handle 125,000 bpd and 110,000 bpd.

Week 01 05•January•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P11