Page 18 - DMEA Week 28 2021

DMEA NEWS IN BRIEF DMEA

an import terminal while Astron’s plant is not whilst ensuring the project continues to be (SIR) was created in 1962 by the Ivorian
expected to restart till at least end-2021 or executed effectively. There have been many government with the support of international
early-2022, after it suffered an explosion in obstacles, which all parties have worked oil groups. It refines crude oil and distributes
July 2020. collaboratively to successfully overcome. We petroleum products in Cote d’Ivoire and the
This means the 108,500 b/d Natref refinery are now supporting our client to successfully rest of the world. SIR refines 3.8 million tons
in Sasolburg and Sasol’s 160,000 b/d coal-to- commission the balance of the units.” of crude oil on an annual basis.
liquids (CTL) plant in Secunda are the only This has been a large Engineering, CHEMENG
refineries still functioning in the country. Procurement and Construction (EPC) project,
The South African refining sector has been in which operational excellence has been Namibia opens up on
riddled with underinvestment, and its refining a key theme throughout. The teams have
capacity mostly comprises non-complex maintained an exemplary safety record with rationale for not developing
refineries, which will require costly upgrades more than 67.8 million work hours without
as it pushes toward using refined products lost-time incident since April 2018. refining
with lower sulfur content. PETROFAC
S&P PLATTS Namibia’s minister of mines and energy Tom
Alweendo says the government opted to build
Handover of MAB1 facilities UOP to provide technology a fuel storage facility in the past instead of
for SIR
building an oil refinery, because the country
at Kuwait’s Clean Fuels Honeywell (Charlotte, N.C.) announced that had no crude oil import agreement at the
time.
Project the Societe Ivoirienne de Raffinage (SIR), not investing in a small refinery.
The state in the past has been criticised for
the state-owned refining company of Cote
Our team delivering the Clean Fuels Project d’Ivoire, will use Honeywell UOP Distillate Alweendo, however, says the government
in Kuwait has achieved the Provisional Unionfining technology to produce diesel decided to invest in bulk storage due to the
Turnover of Facilities (PTOF) for Kuwait that complies with both AFRI 6 and Euro-V immediacy of the need for fuel supply security
National Petroleum Company’s (KNPC) Mina emission standards. The investment is part in the country.
Abdullah Refinery Package 3 (MAB1). of Cote d’Ivoire clean air program and SIR’s He says the government has always kept
We have been leading a joint venture with refinery modernization. in mind that a refinery may eventually prove
South Korea’s Samsung Engineering Co Ltd The UOP Unionfining process removes feasible should the necessary agreements
and CB&I Nederland BV (now McDermott impurities to improve the quality of middle related to the import and allocation of crude
International). The project has involved the distillate feedstocks such as kerosene, jet fuel, oil be implemented.
expansion and upgrading of KNPC’s Mina and diesel oils that meet increasingly stringent He concedes that the benefits of the storage
Abdullah and Mina Al-Ahmadi refineries, regulations for fuels such as diesel. facility are yet to be reaped.
to develop an integrated complex, increasing “The addition of the UOP Distillate Meanwhile, northern Namibians are
processing capacity to 800,000 barrels per day. Unionfining process will allow SIR to meet making supply deals with Angolans.
The production of a new generation of ultra- changing diesel specifications in Africa, with The minister says the government would
low Sulphur fuel products will boost Kuwait’s a cost-effective solution that reduces the invest in a refinery once the relevant feasibility
global position in the industry. sulfur content while maximizing distillate studies have been conducted and submitted
Prashant Bokil, JV Project Director, yields,” said Laura Leonard, vice president and to the government for a decision. “The storage
said: “This significant milestone marks the general manager, Honeywell UOP Process facility will be able to also feed into any
safe completion and handover of MAB1 Technologies. “Our design for this unit and refinery, which is likely to be built in northern
facilities to KNPC. I would like to thank track record of success with this technology Namibia,” he says.
everyone involved, from the various office enables SIR to raise its crude processing Angola is the third-biggest producer of
locations and at site. The pandemic has capacity, as part of the modernization one of crude oil in Africa, has limited refinery space,
been a major challenge, everyone has been the West Africa’s largest oil refineries.” and is said to be currently developing more.
focused on keeping people safe and healthy, The Societe Ivoirienne de Raffinage Several Namibians are importing Angolan oil

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