Page 10 - AfrOil Week 28 2021

AfrOil INVESTMENT AfrOil

Also known as the Refined Petroleum Mul- Meanwhile, Engineers India was awarded a
ti-Product and Natural Gas Pipeline Project, it contract for FEED validation and review of
is expected to run 1,400 km through the ‘Lobito basic engineering and design in mid-2015. BP,
Corridor’, connecting the planned Lobito refin- Eni and Total have all previously held talks with
ery in the coastal Benguela province to the Zam- Luanda about possible investment, and the Ital-
bian capital Lusaka. The conduit is anticipated to ian firm agreed in late 2015 to review the plans.
have a throughput capacity of 100,000 barrels of Progress is also being made in the northern
oil equivalent per day (boepd), comprising gas- Cabinda exclave, where UK-based Gemcorp
oline, diesel and gas sourced from Sonangol’s Capital recently awarded a contract to Odebre-
planned refinery. cht Engenharia e Construção (OEC) to build a
The project was initially led by Zambian crude distillation unit (CDU) as part of a project
copper firm Basali Ba Liseli Resources, but the to develop a 60,000 bpd refinery.
company was not mentioned in a recent mem- The UK-based company holds a 90% stake
orandum of understanding (MoU) which was in the $920mn project alongside state-owned
signed by Angolan state oil firm Sonangol and Sonangol Refining (Sonaref). Gemcorp took a
Zambia’s Industrial Development Corp. (IDC), final investment decision (FID) on the project
who have taken up strategic equity positions. A last October, saying that the partners intend
shared-financing agreement was struck in 2019. to build the facility in stages. The first stage
will involve the construction of a CDU with a
Progress capacity of 30,000 bpd, as well as storage tanks
Angola has appeared close to significant pro- that can hold up to 1.2mn barrels of oil, while
gress on the Lobito refinery at various points the second and third stages will involve dou-
over the past 15 years, but given the importance bling the plant’s capacity and adding secondary
now seemingly accorded to the downstream processing facilities.
sector, there is hope that this effort will finally The refinery will be built on the Malembo
bear fruit. Plain, around 30 km north of the provincial cap-
Angolan state news outlet Angop noted that ital, and is expected to produce gasoline, diesel,
Africa Finance Corp.’s (AFC) deputy director fuel oil and Jet A1. According to Gemcorp, the
Ini Urua last week expressed an interest in the first phase will cost around $220mn, with the
Lobito unit as well as another 100,000 bpd unit remaining $700mn of the budgeted amount split
at Soyo and the Barra do Dande terminal. across phases two and three. The company has
A deal was signed in 2007 with Chinese said it expects to launch operations early next
refining giant Sinopec to develop and fund the year, though this timeline appears ambitious.
scheme, while a front-end engineering and Even so, with Angolan Secretary of State for
design (FEED) study on the Lobito plant was Oil and Gas José Alexandre Barroso saying last
completed by KBR in 2010. In 2011, the oil week that the refinery could come into opera-
ministry said that Lobito would process around tion by mid-2022, optimism around Angolan
120,000 bpd during its first stage of operation. refining has reached an all-time high. ™

PERFORMANCE
Algeria’s hydrocarbon output

reported down by 6% in 2020

ALGERIA ALGERIA’S hydrocarbon production went also plunged, sinking by 39% year on year to
down by 6% year on year to 176mn tonnes of oil $20bn. This occurred as the average price of
equivalent (toe) for the full year 2020. Algeria’s Sahara Blend fell by 35% in 2020,
The decline was largely the result of the according to Mohamed Rochdi Boutaleb, the
North African country’s decision to curb output, director of state-owned Sonatrach.
in compliance with the production quotas set by Algeria’s total hydrocarbons sales were down
the OPEC+ group. However, it was also driven by 7% year on year in 2020 to 140mn toe, includ-
by the advent of the coronavirus (COVID-19) ing 81mn in exports. Domestic refinery pro-
pandemic and the collapse of world crude oil duction was up by 7% year on year to 28mn toe,
prices in the second quarter of the year. Condi- while petroleum product imports sank by 81%.
tions only improved gradually after the end of In response to market conditions, Sonatrach
the second quarter. cut its investment and operating budgets by 35%
As a result of the drop in production, reve- and 13%, respectively, in 2020. It also slashed
nues generated from the export of hydrocarbons investments by 30% to $5.7bn last year. ™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 28 14•July•2021