Page 4 - AfrOil Week 25 2022

AfrOil COMMENTARY AfrOil

Luanda refinery (Photo: Sonangol)
Eyes on African refining

as fuel pinch persists

While progress is expected on several new, upgrade and rehabilitation projects in the African

downstream sector, current market conditions mean their completion cannot come quickly enough

RISING prices and fuel shortages are being save the facility.
acutely felt across Africa and while major refin- The 45,000 bpd Tema Oil Refinery (TOR)
WHAT: ing projects are underway throughout the con- has been plagued by challenges and technical
Experts have spoken of tinent are underway, pressure to make progress difficulties since an explosion at its distillation
a new “golden age” of is building. unit in early 2017, and it remained closed com-
refining, and if project Speaking to NewsBase last week, Ian Simm, pletely between July 2020 and January 2021.
commitment is a good Principal Advisor at consultancy IGM Energy, Outages have been reported at the crude distil-
indicator, there are few said that Africa is in the midst of a “refining lation unit (CDU) and fluid catalytic cracking
places where this is more renaissance”. Indeed, with projects equating to unit, while only one of the CDU’s furnaces is
evident than Africa. upwards of 1.5mn barrels per day (bpd) of new currently operational. As a result, the 56-year-
and overhauled capacity in train, the down- old facility has an effective throughput capacity
WHY: stream sector is attracting more interest and of 30,000 bpd.
Amid supply concerns investment than at any point during the past The IES said: “At a time this nation needs
and high fuel prices, Afri-
can interest in refining is decade. it most, the refinery has ceased to play any
returning, while long-lead However, chronic disrepair and a lack of meaningful role in managing fuel price and
projects are beginning to profitability have taken hundreds of thousands supply risks, while pockets of fuel shortages are
provide hope. of barrels of capacity offline, and the additions recorded with the price of fuel almost quad-
are heavily weighted towards Angola and Nige- rupling in the past six and half years, stoking
WHAT NEXT: ria, with other countries likely to remain at the inflationary pressures on the entire economy, as
While some units require sharp end of the supply pinch for some time to Ghanaians will attest.”
short-term upgrades and come. It added: “After close to 6 years of poor
others need a lot more, management of this vital state institution, the
progress witnessed in Time to save Tema refinery sits idle and hopeless; losing out on the
recent months suggests Ghana’s sole refinery at Tema was described last prospects of the Russian-Ukraine conflict, plus
the tide may be turning. week as being in a “coma,” with the local Institute the potential of generating that synergy between
for Energy Security (IES) calling for President the upstream and the downstream sectors of the
Nana Akufo-Addo’s “urgent intervention” to Ghanaian petroleum industry.”

P4 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 25 22•June•2022