Page 11 - DMEA Week 47 2021
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DMEA REFINING DMEA
Uncertainty about SONARA’s future
AFRICA THE future of Cameroon’s decrepit Limbe refin- Jean-Paul Simo Njonou thanked the govern-
ery continues to be questioned despite a recent ment for their earlier efforts to keep the company
deal to restructure the facility’s debt. afloat.
The 42,000 barrel per day (bpd) Societe Local media described the deal as a ‘breath of
Nationale de Raffinage (SONARA) unit was fresh air’ for SONARA, but the facility’s future
crippled by a fire in mid-2019 and it has not yet remains up in the air with Cameroon’s National
returned to operations. Meanwhile, plans are Development Strategy outlining plans for “a new
understood to remain under consideration to and large regional refinery in Kribi”.
develop a larger refinery at the deepwater port Plans to build an 80,000-bpd unit at the
of Kribi. southern port are logical with Kribi already
The cost of repairing the former plant home to Cameroon’s main oil export terminal,
was estimated last year by the government at the Kome-Kribi floating storage and off-loading
XAF250bn ($462mn), though the country’s (FSO) vessel and the end point of the 1,070-km,
Minister of Water and Energy Gaston Eloundou 225,000 bpd Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline.
said in December 2020 that while “technical The rationale for doubling down on Kribi as
and financial partners [had] expressed interest the country’s downstream hub is further sup-
in the reconstruction of this refinery] any reha- ported by the Limbe’s processing capabilities
bilitation work would depend on its debt being being largely limited to imported crude. When
restructured first. it was built in the 1970s, SONARA was geared as
Last month, SONARA signed a deal with a topping and reforming unit to process Arabian
a group of banks to restructure XAF261.4bn Light crude (33°API). However, Cameroon’s
($450mn) of debt during a meeting presided domestic crude streams are predominantly
over by Finance Minister Louis Paul Motaze, The medium/heavy blends and while a blend of the
banks included UBA, SGC, Afriland First Bank, 30°API Kole grade and Equatorial Guinean Alba
Ecobank, BEAC and BICEC. condensate provides a portion of SONARA’s
At the time, SONARA’s general manager feedstock, the majority comes from Nigeria.
Week 47 25•November•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P11
