Page 7 - AfrOil Week 34 2019
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AfrOil POLICY AfrOil
Kenyan government prepares
to explain plan for use of oil revenues
A team of Kenyan government o cials will travel to Turkana County this week to inform residents of the area about plans for the use of future crude oil revenues.
Andrew Kamau, the Principal Secretary of the Petroleum Department of Kenya’s Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, unveiled plans for the visit last week during a discussion about the country’s rst oil export cargo. He said the gov- ernment wanted to explain what would happen to the $12mn earned from the sale of the crude to ChemChina, a state-run Chinese company.
Residents of Turkana County have specu- lated that the proceeds of the sale will be dis- tributed locally, but Kamau described these expectations as premature. “We will be meet- ing all the leaders next week to explain to them what the sale means because, as we have always said, the Early Oil Pilot Scheme is a market test and not necessarily a commercial venture,” he was quoted as saying by Daily Nation.
He explained that the $12mn in revenues collected from the sale of the 200,000 barrel cargo did not represent a pure pro t of $12m. Kenya still needs to cover the high expenses it incurred in the pilot programme, he said. ese costs include the expense of setting up drilling rigs, transporting crude oil by truck and reha- bilitating tanks and other storage facilities, he said.
As a result, Kamau said, Kenya is not yet in a position to start distributing export revenues in the areas where its oil elds lie. But according to President Uhura Kenyatta, when the coun- try does reach this milestone, it will be able to spend more to promote economic growth and reduce poverty.
“I think we have begun our journey, and it is up to us to ensure that those resources are put to the best use to develop our country to make it prosperous and to ensure we eliminate poverty in Kenya,” Kenyatta said last week. He was speaking shortly before the scheduled port departure of the rst export cargo of Kenyan oil.
PROJECTS & COMPANIES
First West African LNG regasification plant to be built in Equatorial Guinea
AN LNG regasi cation and storage plant will be built in Equatorial Guinea as the country advances its plans to develop gas-to-power infrastructure. It will be the rst such project in West Africa.
The facility will be located at the Port of Akonikien and will enable the transportation and storage of LNG from Equatorial Guinea’s LNG plant at the Punta Europa gas complex on Bioko Island to Akonikien on the mainland. From the regasi cation terminal, gas will be dis- tributed to smaller-scale power plants, as well as being exported to neighbouring countries.
e plant can store 14,000 cubic metres, with 12 cryogenic bullet tanks, a truck-loading sta- tion and 12km of 10-inch (254-mm) gas and
diesel pipelines. e tanks are the largest facto- ry-built cryogenic bullet tanks in the world, with a capacity of 1,228 cubic metres. ey are being built by US-based Corban Energy Group.
Equatorial Guinea has chosen local engi- neering rm Elite Construcciones to lead con- struction of the terminal. Two German rms, ESC Engineers and Noordtec, are working with Elite Construcciones on the design, develop- ment and construction of Akonikien LNG.
e project is the rst gas-to-power develop- ment within Equatorial Guinea’s LNG2Africa initiative. Other projects are anticipated to fol- low, according to Equatorial Guinea’s Minister of Mines and Hydrocarbons, Gabriel Mbaga Obiang Lima.
Standard (Kenya)
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