Page 5 - DMEA Week 25 2021

DMEA COMMENTARY DMEA

final round. China’s Jiangsu Sinochem Con- Angola’s downstream capabilities.
struction Co. was disqualified for presenting
insufficient documentation. Cabinda construction
Quanten was joined in the last round by Meanwhile, Gemcorp handed out a construc-
China National Machinery & Equipment Import tion contract to Odebrecht Engenharia e Con-
& Export Corporation (CMEC), Gemcorp Cap- strução (OEC) to build a crude distillation unit
ital (UK), Tobaka Investment Group (South (CDU) as part of the project to develop a 60,000
Africa), SDRC (China), Satarem (Switzerland) bpd refinery in the Cabinda exclave.
and CHC, and won with a final score of 31.5. The The UK-based company holds a 90% stake
CMEC Consortium finished second with 30.9, in the $920mn project alongside state-owned
followed by Gemcorp with 29.9, which won the Sonangol Refining (Sonaref). Gemcorp took a
contract for the Cabinda refinery. final investment decision (FID) on the project
Little-known Quanten’s website outlines the last October, saying that the partners intend to
consortium’s plans to design, construct, own build the facility in stages.
and operate the refinery, a tank farm and marine The first stage will involve the construction of
terminal for receiving feedstock and export- a crude distillation unit (CDU) with a capacity
ing products, and all associated infrastructure of 30,000 bpd, as well as storage tanks that can
including power generation. With Quanten at hold up to 1.2mn barrels of oil, while the sec-
first glance appearing to have little in the way of ond and third stages will involve doubling the
relevant experience, the award looks to be yet plant’s capacity and adding secondary process-
another ambitious refining project award to a ing facilities.
company that will struggle to bring it to fruition. The refinery will be built on the Malembo
However, the consortium notes that its “team Plain, around 30 km north of the provincial cap-
members, affiliates, subcontractors and advo- ital, and is expected to produce gasoline, diesel,
cates may include (subject to negotiations and fuel oil and Jet A1.
contracts)”: KBR, McDermott, Cisco, Berklee According to Gemcorp, the first phase
University’s Renewable and Appropriate Energy will cost around $220mn, with the remaining
Laboratory (RAEL), the US government’s $700mn of the budgeted amount split across
Department of Commerce, Department of State phases two and three. The company previously
and its Prosper Africa initiative. said it anticipated operations commencing
Indeed, US government support was early next year, though this timeline appears
expressed by the Ambassador to Angola Nina ambitious.
Maria Fite, who wrote on Twitter: “A strong The progress on each of these facilities is
#USAngola commercial relationship is good encouraging for Angola, which is seeking to
for the US and Angola. Congrats to the US con- improve revenues by adding value through the
sortium of companies led by Quanten LLC on refining process, while recent efforts to engage
winning the $3.5bn public tender to build an IOCs are designed to halt and potentially reverse
oil refinery in Soyo! $2.5bn in US exports sup- decline in the upstream. If realised the refineries
ports US jobs.” With so much US export credit will increase throughput capacity nearly 10-fold,
involved, the consortium is better placed than though expectations should be tempered given
those involved in abortive efforts to ramp up the long delays experienced to date.™

Week 25 24•June•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P5