Page 12 - DMEA Week 22 2022
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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.”™



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