Page 8 - AfrOil Week 30 2022

AfrOil INVESTMENT AfrOil

Earlier in July, Nigerian National Petroleum Co. keen on NNPC Ltd’s involvement.
Ltd (NNPC) paid the first instalment to acquire Speaking to This Day in mid-July, Kyari said
its 20% stake in the Dangote refinery under an of the investment: “[Dangote] didn’t ask for it. It’s
agreement signed in August 2021. This valued our decision to take equity. We made this deci-
the project at around $14bn, below the $15-16bn sion three years ago, much earlier. It’s not what
valuation previously touted. Term sheets were he wants, but they are also aware that they oper-
signed by NNPC Ltd and Dangote Group, with ate in a resource-dependent country. We made
talks understood to be ongoing regarding the a request and it’s the policy of government that
financing of the acquisition. we take interest in this refinery.”
Much of the funding was sourced from a Now that the first instalment has been paid,
loan signed in November with the Cairo-based local media outlet The Whistler quoted an
African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) NNPC Ltd official as saying that payment of the
– which is also supporting the renovation and balance is subject to the facility’s start-up and is
upgrade of the state-owned company’s complex linked to crude supplies to Dangote.
in Port Harcourt. “We have made the payments. We paid $1bn,
For NNPC Ltd, the deal is an important part the balance is subject to plant start-up and tied
of its new strategy for the downstream sector, to crude supply. It was a very ingenious deal. It
following decades of poor performance. How- locks market for our crude and puts no stress on
ever, the company admits that Dangote Indus- payment, as we will pay only $2 on every barrel
tries’ president and CEO Aliko Dangote was not supplied,” he added. ™

PERFORMANCE
Enagas says July 24 dip in Algerian gas

supplies was only temporary

ALGERIA ENAGAS, the owner and operator of Spain’s gas largest single supplier of gas to the EU, has gone
transportation system, confirmed on July 24 that down as a consequence of the Russian invasion
the volume of natural gas coming into the coun- of Ukraine, which led to a deterioration in rela-
try from Algeria had declined briefly earlier in tions between Moscow and Brussels.
the day but stressed that the drop was temporary Spain has a relative advantage over some
in nature, with no need for corrective measures. other European countries, as it is home to six
In a statement, Enagas said it had been operating LNG import terminals and is also
informed by Medgaz, the operator of a pipeline receiving Algerian gas via the Medgaz line.
that runs from Algeria to Spain across the Med- However, relations between Madrid and Algiers
iterranean seabed, that gas shipments would be have been worsening during the last year, largely
suspended for a two-hour period beginning at because of the latter’s displeasure at the former’s
12:00 noon local time. Medgaz explained the endorsement of the Moroccan government’s
suspension by noting the need to perform rou- approach to Western Sahara. ™
tine maintenance work on a compressor station
at Beni Saaf, it reported.
The result of this temporary stoppage was
“a decrease – but not a cessation – in the flows
entering Spain” via the Almeria International
Connection, where the pipeline makes landfall,
Enagas said. It also stated that the maintenance
work had been completed satisfactorily and that
gas flows had returned to normal levels, reach-
ing a minimum rate of 704,000 normal cubic
metres per hour.
The brief dip in delivery volumes occurred
at a time when anxieties over gas supplies are
running high. Much of Europe is experienc-
ing a severe heatwave, and the hot weather has
caused the reservoirs that supply water to Spain’s
hydroelectric power plants (HPPs) to sink to
record low levels. Meanwhile, the volume of gas
arriving from Russia, which has long been the The pipeline makes landfall at Almeria in southern Spain (Image: Medgaz)

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