Page 8 - AfrOil Week 10 2022

AfrOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT AfrOil

On March 2, during the hearing of the appli- The court adjourned the hearing until the
cation for a temporary injunction, Tanzania’s issue of jurisdiction and other preliminary
Solicitor General Gabriel Malata raised a pre- objections have been resolved. This means that
liminary objection, arguing that EACJ must the court will first have to determine if the EACJ
address the question of whether it has jurisdic- has the jurisdiction to hear the case, among
tion to hear the main case. others, before the application for a temporary
A lawyer for the CSOs argued the applicants injunction is heard.
had shown that EACJ had the jurisdiction, add- The judges told the applicants and respond-
ing that application for a temporary injunction ents, as well as the EAC Secretary General, that
should be fast-tracked to protect the environ- they would be informed of the date for the next
ment and communities’ livelihoods. hearing. ™

INVESTMENT
Libya looking ready to fund South Refinery

LIBYA THE Libyan government last week said that have also suggested that the city of Sebha, to the
budgetary arrangements are being made to east of Awbari.
allocate funds for the development of a new Meanwhile, unity government Prime Min-
refinery in the south of the country, following ister Abdulhamid Dbeibah said: “The financial
its announcement last year. coverage is ready for this project and the spec-
Following a meeting to discuss the project ifications and technical designs are ready with
with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of NOC.”
Health Ramadan Abu Janah, President of the He added: “Today we announce the start of a
Audit Bureau Khaled Shakshak and chairman giant step, the actual start of the construction of
of the National Oil Corp. (NOC) Mustafa San- an oil refinery project in the south, [for] which
alla, Finance Minister Khaled Al-Mabrouk was the people of the region have been waiting for
quoted by local media as saying that the pro- many years.”
cesses for the allocation of budget for the South Libya’s current refining slate comprises facili-
Refinery were nearly complete. ties at Ras Lanuf (220,000 bpd), Zawiya (120,000
Abu Janah noted that the project “will per- bpd), Tobruk (20,000 bpd) and Sarir (10,000
manently address the fuel shortage crisis and bpd), all of which are operated by the National
provide many direct and indirect job opportu- Oil Corp. (NOC).
nities for young people in the south after com- Operations at each of these, like those at the
pleting its implementation.” country’s oilfields and terminals, have been dis-
In October, the government and the NOC rupted at various points over the past decade,
announced that construction work had begun though Ras Lanuf has been offline since 2013.
on the facility in the Awbari area near the coun- Last month though, the International Chamber
try’s El Sharara oilfield, noting that the refinery of Commerce in Paris concluded an arbitration
that would be built would be completed and on hearing that may allow NOC to resume opera-
stream within the next three years. Saying that tions at the facility. ™
the facility was expected to cost around $500-
600mn, Sanalla noted that the facility was pro-
jected to achieve an annual income of $75mn.
The refinery will be run by NOC subsidiary
Zallaf Co. to produce LPG, jet fuel and other
products, including 1.4mn litres per day of gas-
oline and 1.1mn lpd of diesel.
The precise location and full throughput
capacity have not yet been revealed but plans
have previously been announced for the con-
struction of a 50,000 barrel per day (bpd) unit
near El Sharara. UK-based Petrofac previously
carried out a feasibility study, which it updated
in 2020.
In 2013, then Prime Minister Ali Zeidan
said that the plant would be built at Awbari,
around 55 km to the east of the oilfield, with a
larger, 300,000 bpd unit to be constructed in the
northern coastal city of Tobruk. The units were
intended to cater to local fuel demand. Reports Libya’s new refinery will be near the Sharara oilfield (File Photo)

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 10 09•March•2022