Page 11 - DMEA Week 14 2022

DMEA REFINING DMEA

Dangote confident

about completion date

AFRICA NIGERIA’S Dangote Group this week reiterated initial capacity of 540,000 bpd.
its intention to begin operations at its greenfield, The pre-commissioning of the plant’s pro-
650,000 barrel per day (bpd) refinery at Lekki duction units and export facilities began in
outside Lagos. December 2021. The plant has been under con-
Reiterating expectations voiced by the com- struction since 2013 and had originally been due
pany’s CEO earlier this year that refining would to come into operation several years ago.
begin during Q3, Devakumar Edwin, group Nigeria’s government took a 20% equity stake
executive for strategy, capital projects and port- in the plant through the national oil company
folio development, said it would be operational (NOC) in August 2021. Under this deal, Nige-
by Q4, noting that the facility would achieve rian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) is slated
completion by the end of 2022 too, ahead of the to provide the Dangote refinery with 300,000
previous schedule of early 2023. bpd of crude oil, equivalent to more than 46% of
During a site tour, Edwin said: “75% hydrau- the feedstock it needs to operate at full capacity.
lic testing ... as well as 70% of electrical cable When finished, the Dangote refinery will be
fitting have been completed preparatory to the capable of turning out enough petroleum prod-
completion of the refinery in the fourth quarter ucts to cover all of Nigeria’s domestic demand.
of this year.” He added that the $19bn facility will The country is currently a net importer of fuel,
have a storage capacity of 4.7bn litres. despite its position as Africa’s largest crude oil
Edwin noted that around 40% of the refin- producer.
ery’s output would be available for export, with The refinery is integrated with a $2.5bn
the majority to be dedicated to the local market. fertiliser plant, the second phase of which was
CEO Aliko Dangote said in February that the launched by Nigerian President Muhammadu
unit would come on stream in September at an Buhari in late March.™

FUELS

Work to begin on

NEOM hydrogen plant

MIDDLE EAST SAUDI Arabia’s ACWA Power this week Terium added that green hydrogen sales from
announced the signing of agreements for the the project are due to begin in 2026, with global
construction of Helios, a $5bn green hydrogen demand expected for the product.
project at the NEOM smart city on the King- He said: “There’s a potential competition
dom’s Red Sea coast. between Europe, Japan, South Korea and some
In a filing with the local stock exchange, parts of the US,” adding that NEOM would sell
ACWA said it had signed a limited notice to “to those who bid the highest price.”
proceed (LNTP) in relation to the award of a According to Paddy Padmanathan, CEO of
$900mn engineering, procurement and con- ACWA Power, financing for the renewables pro-
struction (EPC) contract to US firm Air Prod- ject that will feed Helios is expected to close later
ucts for the facility, which will be built with a this year.
capacity of 1.2mn tonnes per year (tpy) of green The wider NEOM project is being built at an
ammonia. Helios requires around 4.3 GW of estimated cost of $500bn.
power to run and will be integrated with a 4-GW Elsewhere in the Kingdom, state-backed oil
solar, wind and storage project. giant Saudi Aramco has already carried out a
ACWA Power holds a 33.3% stake in the successful pilot project with Japan’s Institute of
NEOM Green Hydrogen Co., alongside the Energy Economics (IEEJ) gasifying oil residues
state-owned NEOM Co. (33.4%) and Air Prod- from refineries to generate 40 tonnes of blue
ucts (33.3%). ammonia for shipment to Japan and capturing
According to Peter Terium, NEOM’s head of 50 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) to be used in
energy and water, site flattening work has been methanol production in enhanced oil recovery
completed, allowing the construction to begin. (EOR) at the company’s ‘Uthmaniyah field.™

Week 14 07•April•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P11