Page 16 - DMEA Week 21 2020

DMEA TRANSPORT DMEA
Tazama pipeline operator seeks $400mn for expansion
TANZANIA
TAZAMA Pipelines, the operator of the Tanza- nia Zambia Mafuta (Tazama) crude oil pipeline, is seeking financing for an expansion project.
According to Abraham Saunyama, Tazama’s regional manager for Tanzania, the company hopes to borrow around $400mn for the project and will use the funds to expand the diameter of its entire system to 12 inches (305 mm). “What we want is to make the whole pipeline from Dar [es Salaam] to Ndola a 12-inch [diameter] to increase the performance of the pipeline,” he explained in an interview with the Tanzania Daily News.
Currently, Saunyama noted, some sections of the 1,710-km Tazama line consist of 8-inch (203- mm) pipe. The differences in diameter serve to limit the system’s capacity and have brought throughput down to about 660,000 tonnes per year (tpy), or 13,200 barrels per day (bpd), he said. This is equivalent to just 60% of Tazama’s design capacity of 1.1mn tpy (22,000 bpd), but volumes should rise to 95% of design capacity, or 1.045mn tpy (20,900 bpd) after the installation of wider pipes, he said.
Tazama intends to import the pipes it needs to complete the project but will make extensive use of local resources, he added. Tanzanian and
Zambian crews will be responsible for construc- tion and installation, he said.
Saunyama indicated that Tazama had dis- cussed the matter with several foreign financial institutions but did not name any potential lend- ers. He also stressed that the company was in a position to assume a debt of this size. “We are capable of paying slowly, and a number of insti- tutions have come forward [and] want to provide the loan to us,” he told the Tanzania Daily News.
The Tazama pipeline has been in service since 1968. Equity in the operating company is divided between Zambia’s government, with 66.7%, and Tanzania’s government, with 33.3%.
The pipeline system was originally built to facilitate shipments of diesel from the Indeni refinery in Ndola, Zambia’s second largest city, to the port of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s largest city and former capital. Later, though, the operator reversed the direction of flow and began using the link to import crude for processing at the Indeni plant.
According to Saunyama, Tazama is interested in reversing flows again so that the Indeni refinery can resume petroleum product exports. “We want t o g o b a c k t o p u m p i n g d i e s e l a g a i n ,” h e s t a t e d . ™
PETROCHEMICALS
McDermott picked for tech at Saudi PDH unit
SAUDI ARABIA
McDermott is the latest of several firms to win contracts at the project.
MCDERMOTT International of the US has bagged a contract from Saudi petrochemicals group Advanced Petroleum Co. (APC) for the supply of propane dehydrogenation (PDH) tech- nology, it announced on May 21.
The contract will see McDermott’s Lum- mus Technology unit provide a licence and basic engineering package of a C3 CATO- FIN PDH unit at a petrochemicals complex ADC is building in Jubail. The unit will pro- duce up to 843,000 tonnes per year (tpy) of propylene.
CATOFIN technology was licensed to APC’s first PDH unit, also situated in Jubail, in 2003.
“The CATOFIN technology that Lummus licenses worldwide, alongside our partner Clar- iant, provides a highly reliable, lower-cost route to propylene, with a lower carbon footprint,” Lummus’ senior vice president Leon de Bruyn said in a statement. “APC’s decision to proceed with CATOFIN technology for their second unit is a testament to the successful operation of their PDH unit and consistent performance as a top
quartile PDH complex.”
Propylene produced at the PDH unit will
be used to produce 800,000 tpy of polypropyl- ene (PP) at a separate facility. PP will be used to manufacture speciality polymers for face masks and for the automotive, pipe, food packaging and textile industries.
The project’s overall cost is $1.8bn, and will be built and operated by a joint venture between APC and South Korea’s SK Gas.
APC recently awarded a contract for project management to US firm Fluor. Technology for the PP plan will be supplied by LyondellBasell Industries.
Construction is due to commence in 2021 and the complex should start up in the second half of 2024. Saudi Aramco will supply it with propane feedstock under a long-term contract.
McDermott described its contract as sub- stantial, placing its value at somewhere between $1mn and $50mn. It will be booked in its first-quarter backlog ™
P16
w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 21 28•May•2020