Page 13 - AfrOil Week 18 2022

AfrOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES AfrOil

“We are also encouraging private companies distillation unit, a 16,000 bpd heavy oil catalytic
to establish refineries in the country, one of unit, a 4,600 bpd diesel hydrogenation unit and
which is 80% complete, and it’s expected to be facilities for naphtha-methanol-to-gasoline
commissioned before the end of the year,” he (NMTG), catalytic gasoline selective hydro-
said, stressing the importance of private sector genation and sulphur recovery. The chosen plot
involvement in the downstream. covers an area of 217 acres (87.8 hectares) that
According to the original project proposal, has been leased for a period of 60 years.
Sentuo Oil Refinery Ltd intends to build a However, after screening the project and
60,000 bpd refinery – also known as Tema III carrying out site inspections, Ghana’s Environ-
– at Tema Newtown, a wetland catchment of mental Protection Agency (EPA) said in April
Chemu Lagoon. last year that the area has been identified as a
The Sentuo project company’s request for a wetland and a buffer zone for flooding, adding
permit was submitted in December 2019 as part that the area is too close to Tema Newtown and
of plans to create a plant to process light, sour would add to existing congestion.
crude over two identical phases, each with a pro- Concerns about the site and other issues out-
cessing capacity of 30,000 bpd. The $796mn first lined in its environmental impact assessment
phase will produce 464,500 tonnes per year (tpy) (EIA) were again raised by the EPA in January,
of gasoline, 481,800 tpy of diesel and other fuels, when Kojo Agbenor-Efunam, the agency’s act-
including LPG, benzene, aromatics, xylene, tol- ing director of petroleum, dramatically likened
uene, sulphuric acid, bitumen and fuel oil. the location near a residential area to “placing a
This will comprise a 10,000 bpd atmospheric bomb very close to people.” ™

Perenco declares force majeure

in response to Cap Lopez leak

GABON PERENCO (UK/France) has declared force statement noted.
majeure in Gabon in a bid to contain a leak at its The Anglo-French independent’s announce-
storage facility in Cap Lopez. ment has been confirmed by Gabon’s gov-
In a statement emailed to Upstream earlier ernment and by the French company Maurel
this week, Perenco said that crude oil had begun & Prom (M&P), which uses the Cap Lopez
leaking from a storage tank at the Cap Lopez terminal to export some of its Gabonese oil
terminal on April 28. The company responded production.
by initiating pumping procedures, but “the leak Oil and Gas Minister Vincent de Paul Mas-
became larger and the oil spilled into the reten- sassa was quoted by the Gabon Review as say-
tion tanks, specifically designed for this eventu- ing that the leak had occurred, and M&P said it
ality,” it reported. was ramping production down to 4,000 barrels
This response allowed the terminal to contain per day (bpd) at its Ezanga licence area because
the leak within its retention tanks and prevent the Cap Lopez terminal was unable to receive or
oil from spreading to the sensitive ecosystem export crude oil.
of the coastal region, it said. The company then The latter company further stated that it
declared force majeure “in order to secure the might be able to resume normal operations at
facilities and prevent any environmental dam- Ezanga within the next few days, as Perenco was
age,” it added. working to bring the terminal back online. Nev-
As of April 30, Perenco reported, no crude ertheless, it said, M&P is looking into alternative
contamination had been detected in the waters export routes. It did not identify any of the other
surrounding the facility. It said that the terminal routes under consideration. ™
had already taken preventive measures to reduce
the risk of marine pollution, explaining: “[Per-
enco] teams are hard at work installing floating
booms as a preventive measure, pumping the
hydrocarbons in the retention tanks and bring-
ing the terminal back into service.”
The company went on to say that it had not
yet ascertained the cause of the link and was
mounting an investigation of the incident.
Perenco is “working closely” with the relevant
Gabonese government agencies “to ensure a
quick and safe resolution of the situation,” the The Cap Lopez terminal is near Port Gentil on Gabon’s coast (Photo: Perenco)

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