Page 10 - DMEA Week 12 2021

DMEA REFINING DMEA

Mombasa refinery could be

revived with biofuels plan

AFRICA PLANS are in motion to revive the dormant Nairobi opted to convert the site into a storage
Kenya Petroleum Refineries Ltd (KPRL) facil- facility and allowed Kenya Pipeline Co. (KPC) to
ity at Changamwe, Mombasa with Italy’s ENI in lease the assets for a three-year term, scheduled
talks to convert the unit to process biofuels. to expire in March 2020. KPC operates existing
The refinery was transformed into a storage fuel tanks with capacity of 320mn litres at the
terminal in 2013 after ceasing refining opera- port of Mombasa.
tions and most recently acted as a storage facility KPRL’s facilities comprise 45 tanks with total
for crude oil produced under the Early Oil Pilot capacity of 484mn litres, including 254mn litres
Scheme (EOPS) at the country’s South Lokichar for refined products and 233mn litres (1.47mn
oilfields, which was halted in mid-2020. barrels) for crude oil.
ENI CEO Claudio Descalzi last week met ENI converted the Venice refinery to run on
with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta to dis- biofuels in 2014 and intends to produce biodiesel
cuss various green initiatives with a broad aim by 2024, and also operates the country’s Gela
of increasing energy security in an “efficient and bio-refinery.
sustainable” manner. Meanwhile, Petroleum and Mining Principal
Talks focused on a multi-year initiative to col- Secretary Andrew Kamau said that ENI began
lect and process waste and agricultural residues biofuels studies in December. “One of the things
in biofuel plants to produce fuels including bio- we have been working on since December is bio-
diesel, bio-jet and bioethanol by using circular fuels. Eni has been undertaking a study in Kenya
economy methods. to see how we can produce biodiesel and power
In a statement following the meeting, ENI ethanol. The company is working with the min-
said: “The parties discussed the development istries of petroleum, agriculture and Treasury to
of circular economy initiatives, including the see how we can engage farmers to grow crops
recovery, regeneration and reuse of agricul- that can produce fuel.”
tural and food waste produced in the country. Kamau added that “the first step will be how
The industrial transformation of waste would to get used cooking oil from households, hotels
enhance its contribution to power generation in and restaurants and then refine it towards using
partial replacement of fossil sources, making a it as biodiesel.
decisive contribution to the country’s decarbon- The other thing we are looking at is the
isation process,” growing of the crops – these include rapeseed,
Central to this would be the conversion of the castor seeds and sugar cane. This has the poten-
KPRL plant, which was the region’s only refinery. tial to create employment and further develop
The closure of the 35,000-barrel per day unit agriculture.”
followed the withdrawal of foreign partner Essar During the same visit, ENI announced that
Oil of India, having deemed a promised upgrade it had been given the rights to drill more explor-
and expansion project uneconomic. This fol- atory wells offshore Mombasa, signing amend-
lowed heavily indebted KPRL being unable to ments to three production-sharing contracts
finance further crude oil purchases. (PSCs).™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 12 25•March•2021