Page 15 - AfrOil Week 28 2022

AfrOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES AfrOil

“As you (private oil companies) are also acquir- another Shell or another Waltersmith. And that
ing assets, and without mincing words, I am means that decision-making will be easy. Then,
being very frontal, we will acquire the best of coming back to the theme of this conference,
assets that is possible in order to build our assets financing will also be easy.” ™
base and also those that we can’t manage for our
scale, we will give it to you,” he stated.
“We will be the biggest oil and gas com-
pany and therefore there will be no distinction
between the NNPC and the rest of the partners
that we have in this business.”
The NNPC recently blocked an attempt by
Seplat Energy to acquire oil assets belonging to
Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited (MPNU),
citing overriding national interest.
The new NNPC will be unveiled on July 19 by
President Muhammadu Buhari.
As things stand, the NNPC is unable to meet
financial projections, making the evolution into
a company vital for its future.
“The meaning of this to our industry is
that you’re going to have the partner of choice,
the partner that will support you, the partner
that will be the largest capitalised company NNPC Ltd’s official debut is scheduled to take
in Africa,” Kyari said. “We are just going to be place on July 19 (Image: Twitter/@NNPCgroup)

Sylva: Port Harcourt could

resume refining by year-end

NIGERIA NIGERIAN Minister of State for Petroleum Having secured a $1bn loan from Cai-
Resources Timipre Sylva said this week that the ro-based African Export-Import Bank (Afrex-
country’s largest state-owned refinery could imbank) in February 2021, the Nigerian
resume processing crude by the end of the year government awarded a $1.5bn contract to Ita-
as overhaul work continues. ly’s Maire Tecnimont two months later covering
Work is ongoing to rehabilitate the Port Har- the engineering, procurement and construction
court Refining Complex (PHRC) as the Nige- (EPC) work to revive the refinery.
rian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) Ltd The original plan was to achieve 90% of its
seeks to resume operations at the plant that has nameplate capacity by 2023, with the second
a theoretical nameplate capacity of 210,000 bar- and third phases six and 26 months later. The
rels per day (bpd). Italian company, with compatriot superma-
“By the end of this year the old Port Har- jor Eni as technical advisor, had carried out a
court refinery will start work and also the $50mn, six-month ‘integrity check’, including
[650,000 bpd] Dangote refinery is expected to equipment inspection and “relevant engineer-
be on stream by January next year,” he said. Sylva ing and planning activities” in 2019.
added: “So we will get to the situation that Nige- Once work at PHRC is complete, rehabil-
ria will be fully supplied with fuel and scarcity itation work will begin on NNPC’s facilities at
will be a thing of the past.” Warri and Kaduna, which have capacities of
The Dangote plant is seen coming on stream 125,000 bpd and 110,000 bpd respectively. ™
at a reduced capacity of 540,000 bpd.
In April, the minister said that the first phase
of repairs should be completed in early 2023,
offering a figure of 60,000 bpd by April. PHRC
comprises a 60,000 bpd unit built in 1965,
known as Area 5, and a newer unit built in 1989
capable of processing 150,000 bpd of crude. It
has been offline since 2019 amid reports that
no comprehensive turnaround maintenance
(TAM) had been carried out for as long as 40
years. PHRC could resume operations by the end of 2022 (Photo: NNPC)

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