Page 12 - AfrOil Week 07 2021

AfrOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES AfrOil

Minister says Mauritania is

counting on GTA gas supplies

MAURITANIA MAURITANIA’S Minister of Petroleum, Mines taking the country a step further into industri-
and Energy Abdessalem Ould Mohamed Saleh, alisation. “We see in gas a huge opportunity to
has emphasised the importance of the Grande develop access to low-cost electricity,” he said.
Tortue/Ahmeyim (GTA) gas project in industri- “Mauritania, which has a high level of debt, relies
alisation and development in the country. on the financial benefits of gas to strengthen its
“Mauritania expects a lot from the future gas budgetary resources.”
exploitation of the Grande Tortue/Ahmeyim Developing a profitable gas and oil industry,
field located at its maritime border with Sene- according to the Minister, is a priority for the
gal,” Saleh said in an interview published in Sen- country.
egal’s Le Soleil on February 15. Moustapha Bechir, General Director of
“The country is counting on the benefits of Hydrocarbons of the Ministry of Petroleum,
these natural resources to improve access to Energy, and Mines, said in a virtual interview
electricity, strengthen its budget and develop with IN-VR on 11 February: “Our strategy for
its industrial fabric and, in turn, create jobs and the last ten years was to attract many majors,
added value,” he said. and I think we succeeded in that by bringing in
The minister stressed his hope that the Exxon and Shell and BP to Mauritania. Now our
first volumes of gas expected to be produced strategy is to establish our first LNG production
in 2023 will open a new vista in Mauritania’s and then start introducing gas into the market,
development. and then using the gas to power, and then with
He noted that the GTA gas will enable a our gas master plan, looking at the other oppor-
favorable energy mix that will reduce signifi- tunities that that gas can offer to Mauritania.”
cantly the electricity rates in Mauritania, while (African Energy Chamber) ™

Dangote Group delays opening of refinery

NIGERIA NIGERIA’S Dangote Group has pushed the tar- “[We] have gone far ahead with the construc-
get date for opening its new 650,000 barrel per tion schedule, and by the end of this year, we will
day (bpd) oil refinery back from the fourth quar- have mechanical completion and we start the
ter of 2021 to early 2022. commissioning by December [of] this year. So
Devakumar Edwin, the group’s executive we expect the products to start coming out early
director of capital projects and portfolio man- next year,” he said.
agement, confirmed the delay in an interview “[It’s] a 650,000 bpd refinery, and it is much
with Arise TV last week, saying that the plant larger than the existing capacity within Nigeria.
would begin delivering petroleum products And this is the largest single-train refinery in the
to the local market early next year. He attrib- world,” he added.
uted the change in schedule to the coronavi-
rus (COVID-19) pandemic, saying that public
health policies restricting travel and transport
had caused problems in 2020.
“We had hoped to complete [the refinery] at
the end of last year and start the commissioning
early this year, but ... COVID-19 had a major
impact on us. We are receiving goods manufac-
tured in the US, Europe, China and India and ...
[all] four countries were affected by COVID, so
our equipment deals got delayed. And because
of the movement restrictions, the shipping got
delayed and the construction engineers also got
restricted,” Edwin explained.
Despite these mishaps, work on the plant is
still moving forward, he added. The Dangote Group’s 650,000 bpd refinery will come on stream in 2022 (Photo: File)

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