Page 10 - DMEA Week 48 2021

DMEA REFINING DMEA

Fire breaks out at Skikda refinery

AFRICA A fire broke out during maintenance at Algeria’s impact on the programme to supply the national
largest refinery this week, injuring eight work- market with petroleum products, which remains
ers, one of whom later died from his injuries. guaranteed”.
The fire, which started at an idled reforming unit Arkab led a delegation along with the presi-
which had already been shut down for repairs, dents of Sonatrach and the Hydrocarbons Regu-
was quickly extinguished, according to a state- latory Authority and local officials to investigate
ment from the Ministry of Energy and Mines. the causes of the outbreak.
State media outlet APS quoted the ministry’s Skikda, which has a capacity of 330,000 bar-
head, Mohamed Arkab, who said that the fire rels per day (bpd), is located around 500 km east
was a “painful incident”, adding that Sonatrach of the capital Algiers and is the country’s largest
had taken “all preventive measures in order to refinery.
quickly control and contain the fire”. Sonatrach’s nearby Skikda LNG facility was
In a statement published on its website, the forced to shut down in early June following the
state oil firm said: “This incident was caused by identification of a technical fault. The 4mn tonne
the occurrence of an incandescent flame at an per year (tpy) remained offline until July 30
exchanger flange during a scheduled routine while it carried out maintenance. Sonatrach said
maintenance operation, while the Reforming I that “the issue was caused by a sudden failure
unit was stopped and inert. This fire was imme- of a gas turbine control mechanism”. The plant
diately brought under control by the interven- had undergone extensive maintenance during
tion agents.” the first half of 2020, during which an incident
Both Arkab and Sonatrach said that the fire caused damage to a turbine.
had not affected production from other units, The company operates a total liquefaction
with Sonatrach noting that “operations are slate of 24.7mn tpy across four facilities, three of
proceeding normally and also [the fire] has no which are located at Arzew.™
PIPELINES

Kenya dismisses LAPSSET

land acquisition rumours

AFRICA KENYA’S government is seeking to deny the first week of December. The first steps in the
rumours that it has already begun the process process will see NLC, the Ministry of Petroleum
of land acquisition in Turkana County for the and Mining, the Ministry of Lands and other rel-
Lokichar-Lamu Crude Oil Pipeline (LLCOP) evant state agencies sending technical teams to
project, a component of the Lamu Port-South inspect and survey the proposed pipeline route,
Sudan Ethiopia Transport Corridor (LAPSSET) Long’ole noted.
initiative. He also stressed that Nairobi is committed
James Long’ole, the National Land Commis- to offering fair compensation to everyone who
sion (NLC) co-ordinator for Turkana, took note will be affected or displaced by the LLCOP
last week of reports that government officials had project. “The survey team will identify the pro-
already identified 516 landowners who would be ject-affected persons and the improvement on
affected by LLCOP. These reports are incorrect, the land. Compensation will be directly paid to
and the number 516 refers to something else, he affected communities, while for the unregistered
was quoted as saying by The Nation. land, the benefits will go directly to the county
“There has been a widespread falsehood that government, according to the law, unless other
... we already have 516 landowners. The 516 is negotiations emerge,” he said.
the number of co-ordinates within the three According to previous reports, LLCOP is
gazetted oilfields. Amosing has 180 co-ordi- slated to follow an 892-km route from Blocks
nates, Twiga has 106 and Ngamia has 230,” he 10BB and 13T, two oil-bearing licence areas
said, referring to three fields within the licence in Kenya’s South Lokichar basin, to the Indian
areas assigned to Tullow Oil (UK/Ireland). “The Ocean port of Lamu. The cost of building the
process of identifying project-affected persons conduit – which will have an initial throughput
[has] not yet commenced.” capacity of 60,000-80,000 barrels per day (bpd),
Long’ole stated that the Kenyan government rising later to 100,000 bpd or more – is expected
hoped to begin the land acquisition process in to reach $1.5bn.™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 48 02•December•2021