Page 10 - DMEA Week 03 2020
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DMEA REFINING DMEA
Equatorial Guinea seeks Nigeria’s help in building small refineries
EQUATORIAL GUINEA
Modular refineries are an attractive option for processing oil at marginal fields.
EQUATORIAL Guinea plans to work with Nigerian partners to build small-scale modular refineries, in order to emulate a similar project already underway in Nigeria’s east Niger Delta Basin.
The Nigerian Contact Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) announced on January 19 it would team up with Nigeria’s Wal- tersmith Petroman to help Equatorial Guinea develop the plants. The co-operation was agreed upon during a site visit on January 18 arranged by Waltersmith at its 5,000 barrel per day (bpd) Ibigwe refinery in Imo State, due online in May.
Equatorial Guinea’s Minister of Mines and Hydrocarbons Gabriel Mbaga Obiang Lima attended the event as a guest.
“I am truly impressed by the nature and advancement of this project ... I share our indus- try’s belief that it is high time for Africans to start refining and processing our own crude at home to maximise our energy security, create local jobs and add value to our economies,” Lima said dur- ing the event. “Creating the right public-private partnership will be of great benefit to all coun- tries and business leaders.”
Small-scale refineries are seen as an attractive option for processing crude oil at marginal oil- fields into higher-end products. Waltersmith, a
joint venture between Nigeria’s Waltersmith & Associates and Canada’s Petroman, owns a 70% stake in the project, while NCDMB controls a 30% interest on behalf of the Nigerian state. Its capacity is anticipated to ramp up to 30,000 bpd within two years.
“We cannot continue to export crude oil. We should start processing our products and we are watching what Nigeria is doing and we want to replicate them,” Lima continued.
Nigeria expects to launch a second modular refinery, the 12,000 bpd Azikel hydro-skimming plant in Bayelsa State, in 2021. NCDMB bought a stake in the venture last year, to help with investment. The state concern is also supporting another project in Cross River State.
Equatorial Guinea, meanwhile, has less advanced plans to build two refineries on Bioko Island and Bata.
Walersmith won rights to the EG-23 block in Equatorial Guinea’s latest licensing round in November last year. At the ceremony, its chair- man Abdulrazaq Isah said the company saw “a lot of opportunities and similarities [between] our two countries and we are going to share our experience, capacity, technology and knowledge base that we have as Nigerians who have oper- ated in this industry in the last 50 years.”
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