Page 11 - DMEA Week 13 2022

DMEA REFINING DMEA

BHEL wins compressor

order for Baiji refinery

MIDDLE EAST STATE-OWNED Indian engineering company and Rumailla in Federal Iraq while also carrying
Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) this week out work on the Sulaymaniyah power plant in
reported that it had been awarded a contract to the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
supply a compressor for Iraq’s Baiji refinery, once The award follows the announcement by
the country’s largest downstream unit. NRC in early March that it intends to expand its
The contract was awarded by North Refiner- refining capacity through upgrades to existing
ies Co. (NRC), the regional downstream repre- facilities and the addition of greenfield units.
sentative of the Ministry of Oil (MoO). BHEL The company, which is a subsidiary of the
will carry out the design, engineering, manu- Iraqi National Oil Co. (INOC), has a nameplate
facturing and supply of an electric motor driven refining capacity of 248,000 bpd with pre-exist-
recycle gas centrifugal compressor. This will ing plans already in place to add around 370,000
replace the existing compressor which was sup- bpd and the latest announcement would take
plied by BHEL in 2022 and was damaged during the company’s anticipated capacity to around
fighting. The Indian company did not specify 815,000 bpd.
which conflict had caused the damage, but the
complex’s capacity fell from 280,000 barrels per Shuaiba depot
day (bpd) to 140,000 bpd during the incursion In southern Iraq, the State Oil Projects Co.
by IS militants who took control of the refinery. (SCOP) reported that work remains ongoing on
At present, useable capacity is limited to the installation of three storage tanks at Shuaiba
the Salah al-Din 1 unit while overhaul of Salah Oil Depot in Basra Province. The units will have
al-Din 2 has been on the cards for several years. a capacity of 3,000 cubic metres of gasoline, gas
BHEL’s contract will be executed by the com- oil and emergency water, respectively.
pany’s manufacturing teams in Hyderabad and SCOP said in comments published by the
Bhopal. In addition to the 2000 compressor, the MoO that it has reached advanced completion
company has previously supplied gas turbine rates on the tanks on behalf of the state Oil Pipe-
generator (GTG) units for power stations at Baiji lines Co.™

Shootout at Dangote Refinery

AFRICA NIGERIA’S Dangote Refinery came under had already been finished. “Mechanical work on
attack this week – an armed group exchanged the refinery is complete, and hopefully before
fire with security personnel as they attempted to the end of the third quarter we should be in the
steal equipment. market ... Full production can start, maybe, by
Lagos State Police Command reported that the end of the year or [the] beginning of 2023,”
it had foiled an attempted raid and that one he was quoted as saying by Platts.
attacker was killed. The pre-commissioning of the plant’s pro-
The refinery is scheduled to begin operations duction units and export facilities began in
in September at an initial capacity of 540,000 December 2021. The plant has been under con-
barrels per day (bpd). struction since 2013 and was originally due to
Dangote public relations officer Benjamin come online several years ago.
Hundeyin said: “Armed hoodlums number- Nigeria’s government took a 20% equity stake
ing about 20 who gained access to the refinery in the plant through the national oil company in
through the lagoon side were repelled while August 2021. Under this deal, Nigerian National
attempting to cart away already-installed Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) is slated to provide the
armoured cables in the refinery.” Dangote refinery with 300,000 bpd of crude oil,
The refinery, which is expected to reach its equivalent to more than 46% of the feedstock it
full 650,000 bpd capacity in early 2023, is Nige- needs to operate at full capacity.
ria’s most hotly-anticipated industrial project. When finished, the Dangote refinery will be
Abuja has spoken extensively about the impact capable of turning out enough petroleum prod-
it anticipates the plant will have on the country’s ucts to cover all of Nigeria’s domestic demand.
economy. The country is currently a net importer of fuel,
In January, owner Aliko Dangote said that despite its position as Africa’s largest crude oil
nearly all of the work on the oil-processing plant producer.™

Week 13 31•March•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P11