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AfrOil INVESTMENT AfrOil

NDEP secured a licence to operate a 1,000 bpd pipelines.
refining train at the site in 2012, which has since However, the government is seeking to
produced more than 140mn litres of diesel. The develop more legitimate small-scale refineries
train uses oil from a marginal field operated by to help curb fuel imports.
NDEP as its feedstock. Construction is already nearing completion
“This is a phenomenal attainment,” NDEP’s on a third train at NDEP’s refinery that will
managing director Layiwola Fatona said, com- boost the facility’s processing capacity to 11,000
menting on the licence. “It has been a very long bpd. It will manufacture the same products as
and traumatic journey. It was fraught with chal- the second train as well as gasoline, referred to
lenges, hard decisions and much human and in Nigeria as premier motor spirit.
financial capital.” “All mechanical erections in respect to Train
Even though it is Africa’s biggest oil pro- 3 are completed,” Fatona said. “Electrical and
ducer, Nigeria is heavily reliant on fuel imports, instrumentation has another week or so to go
as its main state-owned refineries are outdated to total completion and full readiness. We are
and have fallen into disrepair, being capable of now ready for pre-commission with the start of
operating at only a fraction of their nameplate technical checks.”
capacity. Most domestic fuel production comes A ceremony will be held to commission the
from illegal refineries in the Niger Delta region train once coronavirus (COVID-19) travel bans
that process crude stolen from oil company are lifted. ™

ReconAfrica secures exploration

licence for Kavango Basin site

BOTSWANA CANADA’S Reconnaissance Energy Africa, also ReconAfrica feels it has definitively established
known as ReconAfrica, said last week that it had the eastern boundary of the Kavango Basin,
secured a licence for a 9,921-square km area in where a deep and high-potential section of the
north-western Botswana. basin extends from north-east Namibia into
In a statement, the company said the deal north-west Botswana,” the statement said.
would help consolidate its position in the The licence gives ReconAfrica a 100% stake
Kavango Basin. It did not name the new site, but in the project. It sets the term of the company’s
it said the new acreage was adjacent to PEL 73, its exploration programme at four years, with an
25,500-square km licence area in north-eastern option to extend by up to 10 more years, and
Namibia. PEL 73 is believed to hold up to 12bn calls on ReconAfrica to invest at least $432,000
barrels of oil, according to previous reports. during the first four-year period.It also states
The Canadian firm hopes to find oil on that if the firm finds commercial hydrocarbon
both sides of the Namibia-Botswana border. reserves, it will have the right to proceed to
“As a result of acquiring and interpreting addi- development work under a 25-year production
tional tight grid regional aeromagnetic data, deal, with an option to extend by 20 years.

The company’s new licence area is adjacent to PEL 73 in Namibia (Image: ReconAfrica)

Week 24 17•June•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P13