Page 10 - AfrOil Week 15 2021

AfrOil INVESTMENT AfrOil

These accounts could be used to help SMEs gain noted that BP (UK), Kosmos Energy (US) and
access to meso-finance opportunities – namely, Woodside Energy (Australia), the operators of
mid-level lending programmes that target com- the country’s largest offshore fields, had joined
panies not eligible for micro-finance credits or forces to establish Invest in Africa (IIA), a non-
commercial bank loans. profit organisation that aims to develop local
Meanwhile, there are a few commercial firms’ capacity for providing services in the oil
banks that are looking for ways to support Sen- and gas sector. These IOCs have partnered with
egalese SMEs and help them secure the funds several banks and financial institutions in the
needed to expand their capabilities and provide hope of expanding SMEs’ access to credit while
training to workers. According to AEC, two of also reducing the risk involved in lending to
the banks involved in such initiatives are Bank local SMEs.
of Africa Group (BOA), a pan-African banking AEC praised these initiatives. NJ Ayuk, the
conglomerate headquartered in Mali, and Ora- chamber’s executive director, commented: “The
bank, a Togo-based financial group that is active road to shared economic prosperity in the oil
in 12 West African countries. and gas industry and Senegal travels through
The chamber also noted that IOCs had two-way streets, where all are included and none
offered support to Senegal on this front. It are left in the margins of the marketplace.” ™

PERFORMANCE
PFG group threatens to disrupt

shipments from Sharara oilfield

LIBYA MEMBERS of the Petroleum Facilities Guard transfer slightly less than 250,000 bpd of oil from
(PFG), the armed group tasked with protecting Sharara onto tankers for export in April.
Libya’s oil and gas infrastructure, have threat- Libya has already seen oil supplies disrupted
ened to disrupt shipments from Sharara, the as a result of salary disputes between PFG and
country’s largest oilfield, if a pay dispute is not the government this year. One such quarrel
resolved by April 25. led to the temporary closure of several coastal
According to Argus Media, the PFG con- export terminals in late January, with the Marsa
tingent stationed at Sharara began airing el-Hariga terminal remaining offline for about
grievances last week, saying that it was ready three weeks.
to interrupt operations if the operator, Akakus AOC, the operator of the Sharara oilfield,
Oil Co. (AOC), did not resume payment of field is a joint venture formed by Libya’s National
allowances, which serve as supplements to reg- Oil Corp. (NOC), Norway’s Equinor, Austria’s
ular wages, by April 21. Then on April 11, the OMV, Spain’s Repsol and France’s Total. ™
PFG group sent a letter to AOC saying that its
members would halt exports from Sharara on
April 25 unless March salary payments included
field allowances, S&P Global Platts reported.
PFG members appear to have taken this step
in a bid to convince Libya’s new government
to include the supplemental allowances in the
next round of salary payments, which will be
made in the near future. However, an industry
source told Platts earlier this week that he did
not expect the Government of National Unity
(GNU) to meet the demand, since it had yet to
approve a budget.
If the group carries out its threat, the volume
of Libyan oil available for export could drop by
as much as 300,000 barrels per day (bpd). Sha-
rara was producing around 280,000 bpd as of
mid-March, according to AOC data cited by
Argus.
In turn, if none of the field’s crude goes
to market, the Zawiya terminal may have to
suspend operations. The terminal is slated to Oil from Sharara is piped to the Zawiya terminal for export (Image: EIA)

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 15 14•April•2021