Page 8 - AfrElec Week 15 2021

AfrElec GAS-FIRED GENERATION AfrElec

Senegal secures funding,

support for gas pipeline plan

SENEGAL SENEGAL’S sovereign wealth fund, Fonds Sou- of suitable partners and consultants, front-end
verain d’Investissements Stratégiques (FONSIS), engineering and design (FEED) work and efforts
and the state natural gas concern, Senegal Gas to secure funding for the construction of the
Network (SGN), have secured financing and pipeline network.
support for the government’s plan to establish a Diallo said the deal was sure to benefit the
domestic gas pipeline network. country as it worked to optimise the develop-
FONSIS unveiled the plan last week, say- ment of its gas resources. The agreement “is a
ing that it had joined with SGN in signing an major step in the implementation of Senegal’s
agreement with Africa Finance Corp. (AFC), gas ecosystem and an illustration of the co-op-
a pan-African multi-lateral institution that eration that a state can develop through its sov-
finances development projects, and UK-based ereign fund with national and African private
West African Energy (WAE). The signing cere- partners,” he stated.
mony was attended by FONSIS’ managing direc- Zubairu noted that the accord would benefit
tor Papa Demba Diallo, AFC president and CEO Senegal in other ways, saying: “This kind of pro-
Samaila Zubairu and WAE’s managing director, ject speeds up the energy transition and creates
Samuel Amete Sarr. Also present was Amadou jobs for young people. AFC is ready to further
Wadda, AFC’s senior director for project devel- support SGN with a contribution of $245mn and
opment and technical solutions. to collaborate with FONSIS on other digitalisa-
According to press reports, the agreement tion and infrastructure development projects.”
calls for AFC to provide $245mn in funding Meanwhile, Sarr highlighted AFC’s previous
for SGN, which was formed in 2019 by Sene- experience with midstream projects. “AFC has
gal’s national oil company (NOC) Petrosen and already built pipelines,” he said. “Its expertise
national power provider Senelec. SGN intends to will make it possible to go [forward] quickly
use the funding to begin the process of develop- and well in order to deliver the pipeline network
ing and establishing a pipeline network capable on time. This will further diversify [Senegal’s]
of transporting gas from production sites to the energy sources and benefit from cleaner and
domestic market. This process will encompass a more economical energy to strengthen business
variety of activities, including the identification competitiveness.”™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 15 15•April•2021