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“We appreciate the commitment Sonangol con- for drilling will depend on a number of fac-
tinues to show towards this drilling programme tors, including but not limited to public health
and for making this initial payment ahead of measures related to the coronavirus (COVID-
formal completion of the agreements between 19) pandemic, as these may affect deliveries of
us,” he said. “This flexibility demonstrates that equipment, parts and other necessary goods, it
we are both keen to test the significant potential explained.
offered by Block 9 as soon as possible.” Melbana also said it intended to seek per-
In the meantime, Melbana is aiming to mission to spud its first well after it had met cer-
launch a two-well drilling programme at Block tain milestones. The company “expects to soon
9 in the fourth quarter of 2020. It hopes to begin a) confirm design details of the drilling pro-
constructing the well pad for the first of these gramme, b) formally engage its preferred drill-
wells before the end of August but has not set a ing contractor and service providers, c) order
deadline for the start of drilling. long lead items and d) establish an in-country
In its statement, the Australian company project management team, some members of
indicated that it wanted to retain some flexibil- which will be personnel from Sonangol experi-
ity with respect to timing. The exact start date enced in drilling operations,” it reported. ™

ARUBA
Aruba seeking new operator

for San Nicolas refinery

THE government of Aruba has confirmed that capacity at the long-idle refinery. Prime Minis-
the search for a new operator for the San Nico- ter Evelyn Wever-Croes’ office told Argus Media
las refinery, a 235,000 barrel per day (bpd) plant last week that RdA was considering three offers
formerly owned by Valero, is underway. for the contract. It did not name any of the bid-
The Aruban government told Oil & Gas ders but said that the company hoped to close
Journal last week that it had teamed up with the deal by August 1.
state-owned Refineria di Aruba NV (RdA) to The winner of the lease will have the right to
invite offers from qualified bidders. Potential use 10 storage tanks with a combined capacity
investors have been asked to participate in a of more than 6mn barrels at the refinery. The
request for expression of interest (REOI) and to tanks are capable of holding 5.224mn barrels of
submit responses by July 17, they said. crude oil, 665,000 barrels of clean refined fuels
The REOI will be a two-tiered process, with and 518,000 barrels of naphtha.
REOI-1 and REOI-2 running simultaneously, Aruba’s government unveiled plans for leas-
the officials stated. They explained that com- ing storage capacity at the refinery earlier this
panies participating in REOI-1 would have the year, after it terminated a previous deal with PdV
chance to submit two types of proposals, with Holding (PDVH), a US-based affiliate of Vene-
Track (a) covering plans to lease, operate and zuela’s national oil company (NOC) PdVSA. It
modernise the refinery’s existing facilities and took this step because PDVH’s subsidiary Citgo
Track (b) covering plans to build new facilities Aruba Holding (CAH) had failed to uphold its
at available sites within the same 3.75-square commitment to renovate the refinery, along
km property. Track (b) plans could encompass with its storage, docking and terminal facilities,
industrial schemes such as alternative clean and keep it supplied with crude oil. ™
energy programmes, LNG transshipment, pet-
rochemical production and renewable energy
generation, they noted.
Meanwhile, companies taking part in
REOI-2 will be able to submit proposals for
repurposing the refinery, which began produc-
tion in 1924. Repurposing plans could involve
replacing existing units or establishing new
types of industrial facilities at the site, they said.
The results of this first stage of the contest are
due to be announced by August 14, they added.

Storage lease
In the meantime, RdA is also moving forward
with a tender for the right to lease storage The refinery has a capacity of 235,000 bpd (Photo: Curacao Chronicle)

Week 27 09•July•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P13