Page 12 - DMEA Week 38 2021

DMEA FUELS DMEA

Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire discuss

plans for fuel supply deal

AFRICA OFFICIALS from Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire demand from the Republic of Liberia, and we
gathered in Abidjan last week to discuss propos- also informed them that we are able to meet this
als for a fuel supply agreement. demand and provide them with refined products
During a working visit to the Ivorian cap- from SIR and SMB.”
ital, Liberia’s Foreign Minister Dee-Maxwell Establishing Côte d’Ivoire as one of Liberia’s
Saah Kemayah, Sr. held a meeting with Thomas fuel suppliers will require the signing of two
Camara, Côte d’Ivoire’s Minister of Mines, Petro- separate agreements, Camara added. First, he
leum and Energy. Kemayah was accompanied said, the governments of the two countries must
by a delegation from his country’s state-run conclude a high-level agreement on bilateral
fuel company, Liberia Petroleum Refinery Co. co-operation. Next, he stated, there must be “a
(LPRC). second agreement between economic and tech-
Camara told reporters after the meeting nical operators” – that is, between SIR and SMB,
that Kemayah and the LPRC delegation had which will supply the petroleum products Libe-
expressed their desire to secure petroleum ria needs, and LPRC, which will receive them.
products from Côte d’Ivoire. “The Liberian gov- Once these milestones are met, he said, the
ernment, through this delegation, is requesting parties can “designate an operator in the middle
Côte d’Ivoire to supply the Republic of Liberia [that] will carry the products in Côte d’Ivoire and
with conventional petroleum products such as deliver them to Liberia.”
gasoline, diesel and bitumen,” he explained. “We He also indicated that Liberia and Côte d’Ivo-
expressed our satisfaction to the extent that the ire had not yet reached agreement on the total
Ivorian Refining Company (SIR) and the Mul- amount of fuel to be supplied or on “the pace of
tinational Company of Bitumen (SMB) are two deliveries and the size of the batches.” The two
refineries that perfectly work in Côte d’Ivoire. sides will continue talks with the aim of conclud-
Both refineries are at their peak. They are work- ing the necessary agreements in the near future,
ing very well. We have, therefore, welcomed this he added.™

PETROCHEMICALS

Derivatives Iran’s biggest

earner amid sanctions

MIDDLE EAST PETROCHEMICALS and petroleum products close to major shipping lanes, made its products
worth almost $20bn were reportedly in 2020 the attractive, he added.
main source of Iran’s export revenues, at twice Another key point is that there are also many
the value of the country’s crude oil shipments. more buyers of refined products than there are
Iranian oil ministry and central bank data importers with refineries able to process Ira-
was cited by Reuters in a September 17 report nian crude. Iranian exports of relatively small
outlining how valuable the petrochemical and consignments of fuel to Iran’s neighbours, using
petroleum products industries have become to trucks, are, meanwhile, tough for the US Treas-
the Islamic Republic in the face of US sanctions ury to detect.
aimed at choking off its oil and gas industry Iranian gasoline exports rose 600% year-on-
export earnings. year in 2020 to 8mn tonnes, or 180,000 bpd,
Fuels and petrochemicals are more difficult according to Iran’s customs administration. Iran
for sanctions enforcers to trace than crude oil. has invested heavily in becoming self-sufficient
Crude can be identified as Iranian by its grade in gasoline production. As recently as 2018, the
and other features, with big oil tankers more eas- country was importing gasoline. Iran’s revenues
ily tracked via satellite. from gasoline exports were an estimated $3bn in
“The world is vast and the ways of evading 2020, Hosseini was further reported as saying.
sanctions are endless,” Hamid Hosseini, board Iranian petrochemical capacity rose to 90mn
member of Iran’s Oil, Gas and Petrochemi- tonnes a year in 2020 from 77mn tonnes in 2019
cal Products Exporters’ Union in Tehran, told and it is set to exceed 100mn tonnes in 2021, the
Reuters. Competitive prices and Iran’s location, Iranian oil ministry said.™

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 38 23•September•2021