Page 4 - DMEA Week 28 2021

DMEA COMMENTARY DMEA

Sonangol launches

Lobito tender as Cabinda

comes into view

Angola has launched bidding for investment partners to develop its flagship Lobito
oil refinery while another downstream facility is edging towards completion.

AFRICA ANGOLAN national oil company (NOC) the plant’s complexity to produce higher-quality
Sonangol last week launched a tender for invest- fuels suitable for export.
ment in the long-awaited Lobito oil refinery as a The unit will form the core of a new indus-
WHAT: top official said he expects another downstream trial hub that will facilitate the development of a
A ceremony was held unit to be on stream in a year’s time. domestic petrochemicals sector.
last week to launch the On July 9, a ceremony was held in Lobito in In order to make the project appealing to
tender for a 200,000-bpd Benguela Province to launch the tender with potential partners, several studies have already
refinery at the port city Minister of Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas Dia- been carried out by Sonangol, including eco-
of Lobito. mantino Azevedo and Benguela Governor Luís nomic feasibility, dredging of Lobito Bay
Nunes in attendance, as well as local and inter- and construction of a road suitable for heavy
WHY: national prospective investors. machinery.
The facility has been in The plan for the refinery envisions the con- The facility is also central to plans for a
planning for the best struction of a new oil-processing plant in several cross-border fuel pipeline between Angola and
part of two decades and stages. The proposed final stage would bring the Zambia.
progress has been limited facility’s throughput capacity up to 200,000 bar- Plans for the Angola-Zambia Oil Pipeline
despite the signing of rels per day (bpd). (AZOP) have gone through numerous iter-
various agreements. Sonaref, the state oil firm’s refining arm, has ations, and it is now expected to cost around
said it anticipates the Lobito plant being finished $5bn, roughly double the figure quoted around
WHAT NEXT: by 2025. a decade ago.
Angola hopes Lobito will A 1.5-square km site has been allocated just Also known as the Refined Petroleum Mul-
come on-stream by 2025 north of Lobito. As previously conceived, the ti-Product and Natural Gas Pipeline Project, it
while the 60,000-bpd refinery would be built in two phases – the first is expected to run 1,400 km through the ‘Lobito
unit in development comprising low-conversion units aimed at satis- Corridor’, connecting the planned Lobito refin-
in Cabinda is seen fying local demand, and the second upgrading ery in the coastal Benguela province to the
coming into operation in
mid-2022.

P4 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 28 15•July•2021