Page 7 - AfrOil Week 11 2021

AfrOil COMMENTARY AfrOil

The UK-based company holds a 90% stake in refinery in Benguela Province which has been
the $920mn project alongside state-owned in planning since the turn of the century, with
Sonangol Refining (Sonaref). costs gradually escalating to recent estimates of
Gemcorp took a final investment decision more than $8bn.
(FID) on the project last October, saying that BP, Eni and Total have all previously held
the partners intend to build the facility in stages. talks with Luanda about possible investment,
The first stage will involve the construction of a and the Italian firm agreed in late 2015 to review
crude distillation unit with a capacity of 30,000 the plans.
bpd, as well as storage tanks that can hold up to A deal signed nearly a decade earlier with
1.2mn barrels of oil, while the second and third Chinese refining giant Sinopec to develop and
stages will involve doubling the plant’s capacity fund the scheme lapsed, while a front-end engi-
and adding secondary processing facilities. neering and design (FEED) study on the Lobito
The refinery will be built on the Malembo plant was completed by KBR in 2010. In mid-
plan, around 30 km north of the provincial cap- 2015, Engineers India was awarded a contract
ital, and is expected to produce gasoline, diesel, for FEED validation and review of basic engi-
fuel oil and Jet A1. neering and design.
According to Gemcorp, the first phase However, while the most recent sign of life
will cost around $220mn, with the remaining came in 2019, when Sonangol said that it had
$700mn of the budgeted amount split across whittled down a list of 68 bidders for tenders
phases two and three. The company previously to construct either the Soyo or Lobito plant to
said it anticipated operations commencing seven preferred bidders, no award has yet been
early next year, though this timeline appears made for the larger facility.
ambitious. A 1.5 square-km site has been allocated just
to the north of Lobito, while Sonaref anticipates
Downstream development that the plant will be completed in 2025. How-
Both the Soyo and Cabinda plants are part of ever, with the Cabinda and Soyo plants expected
a broader strategy to modernise and expand to increase Angola’s total refining capacity to
Angola’s refining capabilities, which are cur- nearly 200,000 bpd, much will depend on the
rently limited to the ageing 38,000 bpd Luanda appetite to build an export-only facility, which
refinery near the capital. given concerns about the trajectory of the coun-
The largest part of this broader project cen- try’s upstream production, may prove even
tres on the long-planned 200,000 bpd Lobito trickier than previously envisioned. ™

INVESTMENT
Croatia’s INA acquires 20% stake

in exploration concession in Egypt

EGYPT THE Croatian oil and gas company INA said The deal, which was approved by Egypt
it is acquiring a 20% working interest in a new National Gas Co. (EGAS) and the country’s
onshore exploration area in Egypt. Ministry of Petroleum, includes a three-year
INA will explore the East Damanhour explo- exploration licence and a 20-year production
ration block with two partners, Wintershall licence in case of commercial discovery.
DEA (Germany) and Cheiron (Egypt), each of Wintershall DEA plans to start the explo-
which holds` a 40% working interest in the con- ration programme with the first three planned
cession, INA said in a press release. wells in 2021.
“Egypt is a key foreign market when it comes
to Ina’s exploration and production, where we
have been present for a long time. By entering
this new concession Ina is expanding its portfo-
lio in Egypt and creating requirements for new
production of hydrocarbons after exploration
activities are completed. That is in line with
our development plans where new projects like
this should replace the company’s reserves, and
maintain production,” Sandor Fasimon, INA’s
CEO, was quoted as saying in the press release.
Wintershall DEA is the operator of the explo-
ration licence. East Damanhour is an onshore block (Photo: Wintershall DEA)

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