Page 12 - DMEA Week 22 2022
P. 12
DMEA PIPELINES DMEA
Nigeria approves Morocco pipeline proposal
AFRICA THE Nigerian government this week approved Sylva noted that funds have not yet been
a proposal for a gas pipeline that will connect the secured for the pipeline’s development but
country with Morocco, running through the ter- “many people are showing interest”.
ritorial waters of 13 countries. Meanwhile, news followed that the OPEC
Nigerian Minister of State for Petroleum Fund for International Development will con-
Resources Timipre Sylva said the government tribute $14.3mn to finance the FEED work
had given the Nigerian National Petroleum awarded to Worley, with the Islamic Develop-
Corp. Ltd (NNPC) the green light “to enter into ment Bank (IDB) providing more than $15mn.
an agreement with the Economic Community The conduit is seen as a means of expanding
of West African States (ECOWAS) for the con- intra-continental trade while also tapping into
struction” of the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipelines Europe’s desire to reduce reliance on Russian gas.
(NMGP). However, somewhat ironically, Sylya
He added that the project is in its “initial announced just days after the award of the FEED
technical design stage”, which he said would contract: “The Russians were with me in the
determine the overall cost of development. “It is office last week. They are very desirous to invest
at this point that we will talk about financing,” in this project and there are lots of other people
he added. who are also desirous to invest in the project.”
In April, Australia’s Worley was awarded the He added: “This is a pipeline that is going
main front-end engineering design (FEED) to take our gas all through a lot of countries in
contract for the 7,000-km line which will link Africa and also, all the way to the edge of the
the existing, 678-km West Africa Gas Pipeline African continent, where we can have access to
(WAGP), which runs from Nigeria to western the European market as well,” expressing hope
Ghana via Benin and Togo, to the Gaz Magh- that the government might at least begin work
reb-Europe (GME) conduit which runs across on the pipeline before its term ends in a year’s
the Mediterranean to Spain. time.
TERMINALS & SHIPPING
Cap Lopez resumes operations after spill
AFRICA ANGLO-FRENCH independent Perenco is operational support, handling output from 20
reported to have resumed operations at Gabon’s offshore assets. This allowed the swift resump-
Cap Lopez terminal and storage facility follow- tion of oil flows from upstream producers in the
ing a major oil spill in late April. vicinity. Paris-based Maurel & Prom reported
The company said that 300,000 barrels of oil on May 10 that it was piping 10,000 bpd to the
had leaked from the terminal’s R17 storage tank facility, noting that this would increase the pre-
but noted that the leak had flowed into units spill level of 19,000 bpd within a week. Mean-
designed to contain spills. Closure of the nearby while, the local subsidiary of French super-major
21,000 barrel per day (bpd) SOGARA refinery TotalEnergies said on May 31 that it had resumed
at Port Gentil was avoided by diverting supply production – at 17,000 bpd – two weeks earlier,
from other tanks within a few days of the leak, noting that the incident had reduced its annual
while the Gabon Oil Co. offloaded crude from a output guidance by 1,200 bpd. When operating
tanker moored offshore. normally, the terminal usually receives around
Perenco said: “Our teams have been working 130,000 bpd of crude.
relentlessly since the incident to secure the tank A company statement, published first by
and recover all the volumes stored in the con- Upstream, read: “This unfortunate incident has
tainment area. Since then, a prudent approach accelerated the planned revamping of the termi-
was adopted to safely restart the terminal’s nal. “We’ll take the opportunity to modernise
operations.” At the time of the spill, a company it with a new control room, which will be built
spokesperson said that output was being tem- together with a complete laboratory to support
porarily diverted to the Oguendjo terminal, production activities, storage and offloading
“although some production is still shut down as operations.”
some fields are not connected to this terminal”. It added: “The plan remains the same: to
It added that other tanks at the facility have completely reshape the terminal to be ready to
been emptied for inspection and repair work, export oil for the next 50 years and to meet the
with Perenco’s floating storage and offload- future challenges of our company and the state
ing vessel (FSO) – the Fernan Vaz – providing of Gabon.”
P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 22 02•June•2022