Page 17 - DMEA Week 21 2020

DMEA PETROCHEMICALS DMEA
Egypt unveils $19bn petchem strategy
EGYPT
Egypt’s petrochemicals demand is growing.
EGYPT has a new strategy targeting the devel- opment of $19bn of new petrochemical projects by 2035, Petroleum Minister Tarek El-Mulla said on May 25.
The North African country is looking to build up its petrochemicals industry to find more uses for its oil and gas and meet growing domestic demand for petrochemical products.
The new projects include two large refining and petrochemicals complexes in SCzone and New Alamein City. The SCzone complex is slated to cost $7.5bn, and will produce 202,000 tonnes of petrochemicals and 650,000 tonnes of petroleum products each year. An initial agreement has been signed with the US’ Bech- tel on its development has been signed. Earlier a feasibility study was carried out by the UK’s Wood.
Financing is expected to come from the US International Development Finance Corp. (USDFC) and US Exim Bank.
The complex in New Alamein City is due to cost $8.5bn and turn out 1mn tonnes of petro- chemicals and 850,000 tonnes of petroleum
products annually. An initial deal is in place with a joint venture between PSW Group and another UK firm.
Italy’s Saipem and Egypt’s Petrojet have also bagged a deal to build a 36,000 tonne per year (tpy) polybutadiene unit in Alexandria. The pro- ject is valued at $183mn.
Egypt’s Sun Egypt Group and Wadi El Nil Developments, and the UAE’s Zafcomm have also secured a construction contract for a $117mn, 110,000 tpy methanol derivatives plant in Damietta. Petrojet, meanwhile, has been selected for a medium-density fibreboard (MDF) plant in Beheira.
A feasibility study has also been commis- sioned to erect a $110mn ethanol plant, and pro- jects to produce propylene and polypropylene in Alexandria are also being considered.
Egypt’s petroleum ministry also wants to establish a $400mn facility to produce up to 50,000 tpy of polyacetal and a $260mn plant to produce up to 60,000 tpy of melamine, both in Damietta. Studies are underway on producing sodium carbonate in Kafr El Sheikh. ™
REFINING
Nigeria needs to encourage modular refineries: OPAC
NIGERIA
The government has approved only a handful of modular refineries.
NIGERIA’S government needs to do more to spur the development of local refining and reduce reliance on fuel imports, the head of a modular refinery under construction in the country has said.
Momoh Oyarekhua is the director of the 7,000 barrel per day (bpd) OPAC modular refin- ery being built in Kwale in Nigeria’s Delta State. In a statement on May 27, he said that by over- coming imports, Nigeria would save its foreign currency reserves, which could be funnelled into other key areas of its economy.
“More investment is needed to increase our local refining capacity,” Oyarekhua said. “The government should provide specific ‘Target Framework’ to further support and encourage local investors in this sector to ensure that we produce enough for our local consumption and export, as well as earn more foreign [currency] while creating jobs too,” he said.
OPAC is one of only a handful of modu- lar refineries that have been cleared for devel- opment by Nigerian President Muhammadu
Buhari. According to Oyarekhua, the facility is now 98% complete. Test work, which had been due to take place in March, was delayed because of the lockdown imposed to slow the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Nigeria’s Waltersmith Refining & Petrochem- ical (WR&P) also plans to complete a 5,000 bpd modular refinery at the Ibigwe oilfield in Imo State in the second half of this year.
The country’s dependence on fuel imports has grown further since Nigeria National Petro- leum Co. (NNPC) opted to close down the state’s loss-making refineries while it searches for financing to upgrade them.
There are also many illegal refineries working in Nigeria’s Niger River region. The government has long sought to clamp down on this activ- ity, but unauthorised fuels remain widespread across the country. Surprisingly, recent research by the Stakeholder Democracy Network (SDN) concluded that official gasoline and diesel imports typically are of worse quality than the supplies produced at illegal domestic plants. ™
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