Page 11 - AfrOil Week 24 2022

AfrOil POLICY AfrOil

Russia accounted for nearly 45% of the EU’s gas developing new discoveries.
imports in 2021, according to the International The EU hopes to secure a growing share of
Energy Agency (IEA). Egypt’s LNG exports, helping the country to ful-
The MoU commits the signatories to utilise fil that ambition.
existing infrastructure to accelerate the export By taking the initiative to bring all sides to
and shipment of gas to the EU and encourage the table to sign the MoU, the EU has made clear
European companies to invest in gas exploration its aim to establish a long-term energy supply
and production in Israel and Egypt. relationship with Egypt and Israel. The MoU will
Existing infrastructure between the two remain in effect for three years to be renewed
countries consists of undersea pipelines con- automatically for two successive three-year
necting two offshore Israeli fields to the Egyp- periods.
tian gas grid. This gives them access to the Idku Egyptian Minister of Petroleum and Min-
and Damietta LNG plants in Egypt, which have eral Resources Tarek El-Molla said the deal is an
a total production capacity of 12mn tonnes per important step to boost relations between the
year (tpy). three countries and foster cooperation among
After achieving self-sufficiency in gas in 2018, members of EastMed, formed by Egypt, Pales-
Egypt is looking to become a regional energy tine, Jordan, Greece, Cyprus, Italy, France and
hub by strengthening regional co-operation and Israel in 2019 and headquartered in Cairo. ™

PROJECTS & COMPANIES
Developers envisage early 2023 start for

Angola’s greenfield Soyo oil refinery

ANGOLA THE US-based Quanten Consortium this week
expressed optimism that work will begin on the
construction of Angola’s greenfield Soyo refin-
ery in early 2023, once de-mining of the site is
completed.
The group, comprising American firms
Quanten, TGT and Aurum & Sharp, and local
technical services company ATIS Nebest-An-
gola, was awarded a $3.5bn build, own and
operate (BOO) contract by Angola’s Ministry
of Mineral Resources and Petroleum (MIREM-
PET) last year. It owns a 90% stake in the refin-
ery, with the national oil company (NOC)
Sonangol holding the remainder. Angolan President João Lourenço (R) met Quanten’s chairman Segun Thomas (L) in
The partners laid the foundation stone in Luanda in May, following the start of construction on the refinery (Image: ANGOP)
mid-May in a 7-square km plot in the town of
Matanga, later announcing that they are work- eight bidders, with five consortia going through
ing to a project timeline that envisages comple- to the final round.
tion in late 2025. “What they are doing now is to Thomas emphasised the refinery’s ability to
make sure the place is landmine-free, for which produce clean fuels. “[The] Euro-5 standard
we will get a certificate,” the group’s managing mandates 10 parts per million for sulphur con-
partner Segun Thomas told Reuters last week, tent,” he noted. “We are going to be at 5 ppm.”
According to Quanten’s website and various The consortium’s website notes that its “team
previous announcements about the project, it members, affiliates, subcontractors and advo-
will have a refining capacity of 100,000 barrels cates may include (subject to negotiations and
per day (bpd), producing gasoline, low-sulphur contracts): KBR, McDermott, Cisco, Berklee
diesel and jet fuel. University’s Renewable and Appropriate Energy
The group envisages the development of Laboratory (RAEL), the US government’s
a “deep conversion refinery with maximum Department of Commerce, Department of State
uptime, which produces consumer ready end and its Prosper Africa initiative.”
products such as gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and Quanten’s contract covers all associated con-
asphalt, and is protected from adverse geopolit- nectivity, including access roads, a power plant
ical events”. Between September and December with a capacity of 60-100 MW and a marine ter-
2020, due diligence was carried out by PwC on minal. ™

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