Page 14 - DMEA Week 47 2020

DMEA REFINING DMEA

Waltersmith commissions modular

refinery in Nigeria’s Imo State

NIGERIA WALTERSMITH Petroman Oil, a private Nige- we already have oversubscription of our prod-
rian company, commissioned the first phase ucts – not spot sales, but people who have shown
The refinery’s first of the new modular refinery it has built at the interest to take our products,” he was quoted as
unit can process up to Ibigwe oilfield in Imo State on November 24. saying by This Day.
5,000 bpd of crude. According to local press reports, Waltersmith Waltersmith recently finished building the
held a virtual ceremony marking the commis- first phase of the refinery. This unit can process
sioning on November 24. Nigerian President 5,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil and store
Muhammadu Buhari attended the ceremony up to 60,000 barrels, and it will turn out diesel
online, along with Timipre Sylva, the Minister of fuel, kerosene, naphtha and residual fuel oil
State for Petroleum Resources, and Hope Udoz- for domestic consumption. Waltersmith hopes
inma, a senator who also serves as Governor of eventually to raise the plant’s throughput capac-
Imo State. ity to 50,000 bpd, and the November 24 cere-
Buhari praised the company for its achieve- mony also marked the breaking of ground for
ment, noting that the plant had been constructed the expansion project.
in less than 24 months. He also stated that the Before the commissioning ceremony,
refinery would be able to reduce the country’s the company’s chairman, Abdulrazaq Isah,
dependence on imports by making larger vol- explained that two more units were slated for
umes of petroleum products available in south- construction at the refinery. “The first mod-
east Nigeria. ule being commissioned today is 5,000 barrels
Chikezie Nwosu, Waltersmith’s CEO, recently per day refining capacity. We are looking at
declared that his company was optimistic about 50,000 bpd refining capacity, [and] that will
regional demand for the new refinery’s produc- come with the planned additional two mod-
tion. “Our focus on putting a refinery in Ibigwe, ules – 25,000 bpd and 20,000 bpd refining
south-east Nigeria, is built on our knowledge capacity respectively – which will then add
about the commercial strength of our area of [gasoline], aviation fuel and LPG to the prod-
operation ... To demonstrate that we were right, uct slates,” he said. ™

PETROCHEMICALS

UAE breaks ground on new

petchem terminal

UAE UAE-BASED AquaChemie has broken ground some $400mn in revenues over the next four
on a petrochemical terminal in the Jebel Ali port years, forming a substantial part of its business.
The terminal will be in Dubai, port operator DP World announced Mott MacDonald has been hired for the termi-
a “one-stop solution” on November 23. nal’s concept design, basic engineering, detailed
for raw materials and The terminal, which will cost AED150mn engineering and project management.
process chemicals for ($40mn) to build, “will serve as a vital gateway, “The new terminal will serve as a one-stop
several industries. facilitating and boosting the growing petro- solution for sourcing raw materials and process
chemical trade between manufacturers and chemicals for several industries and is poised to
end-users in the Middle East and globally,” DP service customers, including oil and gas down-
World said in a statement. It will also address stream, fine chemicals, fertiliser plants, paints
an acute shortage in the port’s storage capacity, and coatings, pharmsa, agrochemicals, textiles,
it said. and other industrial and consumer products,”
The facility, which DP World described as AquaChemie said. “Local and regional availabil-
state-of-the-art, is due to start up in the second ity of chemicals will foster all the chemical-based
quarter of 2022. It will boast a 40,000-cubic associated industries in the region.”
metre storage capacity, including 35,000 cubic Jebel Ali is also home to a condensate refin-
metres of bulk storage tanks and 5,000 cubic ery, operated by state-owned ENOC. Contrac-
metres of ISO tanks and drums. It will be con- tor TechnipFMC reported in April that a $1bn
nected to four jetty pipelines to the Jebel Ali Port expansion project at the facility was near to
chemical berth just 500 metres away. completion, raising its processing capacity from
AquaChemie expects the terminal to earn 140,000 to 210,000 bpd. ™

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 47 26•November•2020