Page 5 - DMEA Week 30 2021

DMEA COMMENTARY DMEA

Resources, Oil and Gas Diamantino Azevedo for the right to build the refinery, but thus far no
and Benguela Governor Luís Nunes in attend- winner has ever been announced.
ance, as well as local and international prospec- A deal was signed in 2007 with Chinese
tive investors. refining giant Sinopec to develop and fund the
A 1.5-square km site has been allocated just scheme, while a front-end engineering and
north of Lobito. As previously conceived, the design (FEED) study on the Lobito plant was
refinery would be built in two phases – the first completed by KBR in 2010.
comprising low-conversion units aimed at satis- In 2011, the oil ministry said that Lobito
fying local demand, and the second upgrading would process around 120,000 bpd during its
the plant’s complexity to produce higher-quality first stage of operation. Meanwhile, Engineers
fuels suitable for export. India Ltd was awarded a contract for FEED
According to Azevedo: “Our perspective is to validation and review of basic engineering and
have, first, enough capacity to supply the inter- design in mid-2015.
nal market, but also additional capacity so that BP, Eni and Total have all previously held
we can export essentially to the countries in the talks with Luanda about possible investment,
region. There is an outflow of oil derivatives from and the Italian firm agreed in late 2015 to review
Angola to the Democratic Republic of Congo, so the plans.
it is an interesting market. We have been work- Activity has been on hold since 2016, though
ing with our counterparts in the DRC to make an economic feasibility study, dredging of Lobito
the relationship more fruitful for our countries. bay, preparation of terraces, heavy load road
Already in relation to Zambia, there is a proposal pipeline and some support infrastructures have
by the Zambian government to study the feasi- all been carried out.
bility of a pipeline from Lobito.”
Plans to build the Lobito unit are part of Level of intent
a broader strategy to modernise and expand Little known British firm Gemcorp Capital
Angola’s refining capabilities, which are cur- holds a 90% stake alongside Sonangol Refining
rently limited to the ageing 38,000 bpd Luanda (Sonaref) in the $920mn Cabinda project, while
refinery near the capital, and to reduce depend- the similarly obscure Quanten LLC won the con-
ence on imported fuels. tract for the $3.5bn Soyo plant, which appears set
The programme also provides for the con- to receive more than two thirds of its funding in
struction of another two refineries in Soyo US export credit.
(100,000 bpd) and Cabinda (60,000 bpd) and for At 200,000 bpd, Lobito is a significantly big-
the modernisation and upgrade of the existing ger undertaking and while European majors are
Luanda facility. reducing their exposure to projects across the
Angolan authorities began discussing plans hydrocarbon value chain, Luanda will be hop-
for the Lobito project around 20 years ago, but ing to attract a household name for its flagship
progress has been slow. Sonangol announced refinery as the country aims to breathe new life
in 2019 that it had received 68 offers in a tender into its oil sector.™

Week 30 29•July•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P5