Page 14 - AfrOil Week 18 2022

AfrOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES AfrOil

Angola tests Cabinda refinery equipment

ANGOLA AN Angolan delegation visited Houston this $700mn of the budgeted amount split across
week to inspect equipment due to be used in a phases two and three.
planned refinery in the African country’s north- The British firm holds a 90% stake in the
ern Cabinda exclave. project and will be responsible for the cost of
Delegates included representatives of state construction, while Sonangol owns the balance
oil firm Sonangol and the Ministry of Mineral of equity.
Resources, Oil and Gas (MIREMPET), led by
Minister Diamantino Azevedo. They oversaw LNG tax break
the successful factory acceptance test of equip- Angola’s secretary of state for oil and gas José
ment including a modular crude distillation unit Barroso announced this week that the country’s
(CDU) at facilities owned by US firm VFuels, gas export facility is to be granted a tax break as
which is the lead equipment provider for the Luanda seeks to maintain utilisation of the plant
project leader, UK-based Gemcorp Capital. against concerning forecasts about the availabil-
The CDU has a capacity of 30,000 barrels per ity of domestic gas.
day (bpd), making it the largest VFuels has ever “It is requested that this company be exon-
built. erated from fulfilling” obligations to pay tax on
A team of Sonangol technicians has been revenues generated from purchased gas, accord-
stationed in Texas to monitor the prepara- ing to Barroso. He noted that a 30% discount
tion of this equipment. In a statement to local had been requested for Angola LNG’s second
media, the Angolan delegation said: “The Fac- phase of operations.
tory Acceptance Test verifies and certifies that “Everything is being done so that Angola
the equipment produced and packaged meets LNG, by changing its regime, to buy gas and thus
the functionality and objectives defined, before facilitate exports, is not harmed and its project
delivery at the destination.” continues to be economically and financially
The first shipments of equipment for viable,” he said, adding that the plant is fed with
the facility are expected to begin arriving in associated gas, flows of which are seen declining
mid-June. in line with falling oil production. ™
The Cabinda refinery, which will have a
capacity of 60,000 bpd, is being built on the
Malembo plan, around 30 km north of the pro-
vincial capital. It is slated to produce gasoline,
diesel, residual fuel oil and jet fuel.
According to plans announced in October
2020, the refinery will be built in three stages
with the first stage including the CDU, a ker-
osene treatment facility and storage tanks that
can hold up to 1.2mn barrels of oil. The sec-
ond and third stages will involve doubling the
plant’s capacity and adding, pipelines a catalytic
reformer, a hydrotator and a catalytic cracking
unit.
Following a 2020 final investment deci-
sion (FID), Gemcorp envisages the first phase
costing around $220mn, with the remaining VFuels fabrication facility in Houston (Photo: VFuels)

Brazzaville, TotalEnergies approve

seven amendments to PSCs

REPUBLIC OF CONGO THE Republic of Congo and TotalEnergies The Congolese government announced on
(France) have finalised and approved seven April 29 that the parties had signed the amend-
amendments to production-sharing contracts ments but did not reveal the details of the
(PSCs) covering multiple offshore licence areas. changes to the original PSCs.

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 18 04•May•2022