Page 10 - DMEA Week 40 2022

DMEA REFINING & FUELS DMEA

Oramah also said Afreximbank was “willing” attempting to prevent an African country from
to support plans for building an oil refinery in developing its own natural resources.
Uganda as part of the LADP and was “consider- Museveni has joined that chorus, fulminating
ing financing” that endeavour, the office stated. against MEPs and NGOs in a speech delivered at
As of press time, the statements made by the opening session of the Uganda International
Museveni’s office could not be confirmed. Oil & Gas Summit in Kampala. “Some of these
Afreximbank has been mentioned as a possible people are insufferable,” he declared. “You need
source of funding for EACOP, and the mul- to control yourself not to explode. They are so
ti-lateral lender does provide financing for mid- shallow, so egocentric, so wrong, but they think
stream oil and gas projects. they know everything.”
However, it has not yet made any official com- EACOP is the midstream component of the
mitments to the pipeline project, which is LADP, a $10bn initiative that aims to monetise
expected to carry a price tag of $4bn. Uganda’s as-yet untapped crude oil resources. It
To date, the only lender known to have envisions the construction of a 1,443-km pipe-
made an announcement with respect to financ- line from Hoima in western Uganda to Tanga,
ing EACOP is the Islamic Development Bank a port on Tanzania’s Indian Ocean coast. The
(IsDB). Last month, the bank said that its board EACOP pipeline will carry oil from the Tilenga
of directors had approved a $100mn credit for and Kingfisher oilfields, which TotalEner-
the pipeline scheme, which it described as fund- gies and China National Offshore Oil Corp.
ing for a public-private partnership (PPP). (CNOOC) are due to bring on line in 2025, and
Nevertheless, the Financial Times (UK) it will be heated to compensate for the waxy
quoted a spokesperson for TotalEnergies nature of the crude.
(France), the leader of the EACOP consortium, Kingfisher and Tilenga will eventually see
as saying in mid-September that the group was yields top 250,000 barrels per day (bpd), with
in active negotiations with a group of Afri- 216,000 bpd flowing to world markets via
can, Asian and Western financial institutions. EACOP. The balance will be directed to the
According to the spokesperson, the consortium refinery in Uganda for processing into fuels for
expects to wrap up financing plans and due dili- consumption in local and regional markets. ™
gence for the pipeline project later in 2022.
Environmental activists and non-govern-
mental organisations (NGOs) have been press-
ing international banks not to contribute any
financing to EACOP on the grounds that the
initiative will increase harmful carbon emis-
sions. To date, at least 17 major lenders, along
with several international insurance and re-in-
surance providers, have declined to participate
in the project.
Meanwhile, the European Parliament, the
EU’s legislative arm, has called for a one-year
freeze on the EACOP and LADP on the grounds
that the projects pose too much risk to the envi-
ronment and to human rights in Tanzania and
Uganda. This move has drawn no small amount
of criticism in Kampala, where a number of
government officials have accused the EU of EACOP will have a capacity of 216,000 bpd (Image: Petroleum Authority of Uganda)

REFINING & FUELS
UAE’s retail fuel consumption reported up

MIDDLE EAST THE UAE is seeing retail fuel consumption grow recovered from the blows taken in 2020. “The
on the back of improvements in the economy, fuel consumption has not reached the pre-pan-
but without returning to the level that prevailed demic level and it is still down by around 15%
before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, … Retail fuel is also coming up slowly but is still
according to Saif Humaid Al Falasi, the group 10-15% below the pre-pandemic level,” he said.
CEO of Emirates National Oil Co. (ENOC). He was speaking after the UAE’s central bank
Speaking to Khaleej Times on the sidelines released data showing that the country’s econ-
of the Wetex 2022 and Dubai Solar Show at the omy grew by 8.2% in the first quarter of 2022.
World Trade Centre last week, Al Falasi noted Dubai alone reported economic growth of 5.9%
that Emirati fuel markets had not yet fully in the January-March period, the bank said.

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 40 06•October•2022