Page 12 - AfrOil Week 18 2022

AfrOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES AfrOil

The plant was first proposed in 2012 as one of
five planned 110,000 bpd refineries; it is unclear
whether the newly completed unit is yet to be
expanded further.
Amec Foster Wheeler, now part of the UK’s
Wood Group, won a front-end engineering and
design (FEED) contract covering the Hassi Mes-
saoud facility, as well as two others at Tiaret in
the north-west and Biskra in the north-east. A
$3.7bn engineering, procurement and construc-
tion (EPC) contract was awarded to a consor-
tium comprised of Spanish company Tecnicas
Reunidas (55%) and South Korea’s Samsung
Engineering (45%).
The nearby Hassi Messaoud oilfield is Alge-
ria’s largest. It was discovered in 1956 by the
French colonial National Society for Petroleum Plans for the 110,000 bpd refinery were first mooted in 2012 (Photo: Radio Algerie)
Research and Exploitation in Algeria (SN Repal)
before being nationalised in 1971. Production the conversion of by-products into fuels. The
peaked at 720,000 bpd in 1977 and the field cur- facility, which is located in the north-east of the
rently produces around 450,000 bpd. country, has a current throughput capacity of
Algeria’s total crude output is just over 1mn 356,500 bpd.
bpd. The country’s oil exports have increased In November, a fire broke out during mainte-
with the easing of OPEC+ quotas, growing from nance at the refinery, injuring eight workers, one
an average of 375,000 bpd in 2021 to around of which later died from his injuries. The fire,
390,000 bpd over the past two months. which started at an idled reforming unit which
Also included in Sonatrach’s four-year plan is had already been shut down for repairs, was
the expansion of the Skikda refinery, the coun- quickly extinguished, according to a statement
try’s largest oil-processing plant, to allow for from the Ministry of Energy and Mines. ™

Ghana intensifying efforts to

rehabilitate Tema Oil Refinery

GHANA GHANAIAN President Nana Akufo-Addo pro-
vided an update on efforts to repair and reinstate
capacity at the country’s sole refinery at Tema.
In a speech to mark Labour Day celebra-
tions, Akufo-Addo said: “Intense efforts are
being made to rehabilitate the Tema Oil Refin-
ery [TOR], to enable it contribute to stabilising
petroleum prices, which should see the light of
day very soon.”
The 45,000 barrel per day (bpd) facility has
been plagued by issues since an explosion at its
distillation unit in early 2017 and was closed The Tema Oil Refinery has a throughput capacity of 45,000 bpd (Image: TOR)
completely between July 2020 and January 2021.
Outages have been experienced at the crude dis- the capital required to rehabilitate TOR, which
tillation and fluid catalytic cracking units, while requires extensive repair work.
only one of the CDU’s furnaces is currently “Given the revenue constraints that the state
operational, giving the 56-year-old facility an has at the moment and capitalisation of TOR to
effective throughput capacity of 30,000 bpd. enable it to turn around, the finance minister,
Reports in May 2021 suggested that the refin- Ken Ofori Atta, would let you know and I sup-
ery had depleted all of its feedstock, with oper- port that we won’t use tax money to go and fix
ations halted for maintenance and repair works it,” he said.
to begin. Meanwhile, Akufo-Addo suggested that a
Earlier this year, Minister for Public Enter- new refinery would soon be launched, presum-
prises Joshua Cudjoe said the government was ably in reference to the Sentuo Oil Refinery, to be
seeking strategic partners willing to provide located near TOR.

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 18 04•May•2022