Page 10 - AfrOil Week 04 2023

AfrOil PERFORMANCE AfrOil

PENGASSAN urges refining

ramp-up to limit subsidies

NIGERIA THE Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff while the 650,000-bpd Dangote Refinery’s com-
Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has missioning has been subject to delays owing to
expressed concern over the lack of production supply chain issues related to the COVID-19
from the country’s four main refineries. pandemic. These came in addition to previous
The company said last week that without funding challenges that have beset the project
concerted effort to reinvigorate downstream since its conception in 2013.
production Nigeria will find it hard to wean The integrated refinery and petrochemical
itself off fuel subsidies, an issue with which the complex, located in the Lekki Free Zone (LFZ)
country has struggled. near Lagos, will become the largest refinery on
PENGASSAN’s General Secretary Lumumba the continent. According to the head of state-
Okugbawa told The Nation: “The best way to owned Nigerian National Petroleum Co. Ltd
address the problem is not rocket science.” He (NNPC Ltd) Mele Kyari, the combined efforts to
continued: “This is important because we are upgrade older facilities and Dangote’s comple-
not in control of the international price nor have tion would be enough to bring an end to product
enough foreign currency to buy product ... Any imports, which is one of the aims of the $19bn
subsidy that is import-driven would be a disas- project. ™
ter, [and] citizens would be in a [worse] situation
than they are in [now].”
Okugbawa added: “If you remove subsidy
and import, the price will skyrocket. Why can’t
we look inwards and refine our products. While
we import, we are not in control of the interna-
tional market price. Look at the global energy
crisis. Because we are not in control, it is difficult,
but for those producing their fuel, the situation
is different.”
Nigeria’s existing refineries – Kaduna, at
110,000 barrels per day (bpd); Warri, at 110,000
bpd; and Port Harcourt, at 210,000 bpd – are
in various stages of disrepair and construction, The Dangote Refinery is still under construction (Photo: NMDPRA)

POLICY
Italian PM Meloni travels to Algeria

to secure landmark gas supply deal

ALGERIA ITALIAN Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni com- shipment of further 9bn cubic metres of gas, in
pleted a two-day visit to Algeria on January 24. addition to the supply already flowing through
This is her first official trip to the North African the TransMed pipeline.
country, albeit her predecessor, Mario Draghi, This vital infrastructure connects Algeria
visited Algiers twice last year. to Sicily through Tunisia and under the Med-
The visit’s main goal was to consolidate diplo- iterranean Sea. Its expansion has already been
matic and commercial ties and secure a contract planned, with the aim of augmenting the current
for increased gas exports. The details of the deal capacity of 33.5 bcm per year.
had, for the most part, been negotiated by Mario But according to Eni’s CEO Claudio Descalzi,
Draghi during his previous visits last summer. who accompanied Meloni to Algiers, “[The cur-
The deal, signed with the Algerian state- rent capacity] is still under-utilised. There are
owned gas company Sonatrach, grants Italy the still more than 10 bcm that can reach Italy.”

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 04 26•January•2023