Page 14 - DMEA Week 40

DMEA
neWs in brieF
DMEA
stakeholders. We have obtained the DPR’s approval to construct,” he said.
According to Iheanacho, a budget of about $250m is needed to build a 20,000bpd to 24,000bpd re nery.
“We need to raise nance. e problem
is that nigerian banks do not have su cient capitalisation to lend one person that kind
of money at the required single digit interest rate and for an extended period of eight to nine years. We are deeply into our fundraising activity,” he added.
He said the grant from the Us agency was very useful, adding, “It was for the articulation of the detailed engineering, and we have nished it.”
An energy lawyer and Partner at Bloom eld Law Practice, Mr Ayodele Oni, said many of the modular re nery projects would not come on stream, describing them as unbankable.
According to him, the Dangote re nery does not constitute a substantial threat to the smaller re neries.
He said, “I think the prospects of the modular re neries are fairly okay. ere can be a quota system for all the re neries where every plant has a quota. It depends on what government policy will be at that time.
“A few of them that will come on stream will have their strategies, even if it is to sell to other African countries. Many of them will not come on stream; they won’t even reach nancial close.”
An energy expert, Mr Bala Zakka, said many people had misconstrued modular re neries as a necessity in order to bridge the re ning gap in the country.
He noted that many people who went for the modular re nery licences didn’t have the technical competence or the nancial capacity.
He said, “Modular re neries are supposed to be for people who want to go into re ning business but don’t have the nancial capacity for large re neries or they want to target a particular product such as diesel or aviation fuel.
“I don’t want to believe that the Dangote re nery will be a threat to the modular re neries.
“We don’t yet know the marketing model
that Dangote re nery intends to adopt or apply when it starts working. We don’t know the target market.
“It’s too early to begin to think that it will be a threat to smaller re neries. ose who want to build modular re neries should go on.”
Between 1976 and 1989, the Federal Government, through the nigerian national Petroleum Corporation, built re neries in Port Harcourt, Warri and kaduna, in addition to an existing re nery in Port Harcourt, which was built by shell in 1965 (later bought over by the nnPC).
But the state of the 445 million-bpd re neries has worsened over the years and no new re nery has been built by the government since 1989.
e Group Managing Director, nnPC, Mr Mele kyari, said in August that the corporation was committed to revamping
the re neries to enable them to “work to an appreciable level or capacity,” with a plan to make the country a net exporter of petroleum products by 2023.
“ e combination of the output of the modular re neries, government-owned re neries and Dangote re nery will serve to supply the nation and make nigeria the centre for the export of products to countries in West Africa and elsewhere,” Iheanacho added.
the PUnCh
PetroChemiCAls
GS to build and own $1.3bn Turkish petchem plant
south korean contractor Gs Engineering & Construction Corp is to nance almost half of a $1.3bn petrochemical plant in Adana Province, near turkey’s border with syria.
Gs announced yesterday (7 October) that it had bought 49% of Ceyhan Petrokimya Endustriyel Yatrim (CPEY), a subsidiary of turkish conglomerate Ronesans Holding.
CPEY is to build a propylene and polypropylene plant with an annual capacity of 450,000 tonnes a year, equal to a quarter of
the country’s polypropylene. Polypropylene is a thermoplastic with a
wide range of commercial uses, from chairs and pipes to packaging.
e plant is the rst project in what Ronesans is billing as a “global petrochemical hub” in Adana. e aim is to reduce turkey’s $13bn trade de cit in petrochemicals.
Erman Ilicak, the president of Ronesans, said in a speech at the inaugural meeting of the Ceyhan Petrochemical Industrial Zone: “As the management company of this 14 million sq m project in Ceyhan, we have taken signi cant responsibilities.
“We will start with the planning of the infrastructure and complete the zoning and parcelling processes in accordance with the purpose of the project. Our second step will be to build the polypropylene plant in partnership with Algeria’s national energy company sonatrach and Gs E&C with an investment of $1.3bn.”
He added that Ronesans hoped to attract combined investment of $10bn in the complex.
As well as being an investor, Gs will be in charge of engineering, procurement and construction, as well as the front-end engineering design of the scheme. It aims to make the production facilities fully operational in 2024.
GCr
PiPelines
Korane urges land payout before Lapsset goes ahead
Garissa Governor Ali korane said on Wednesday the county must be compensated for communally owned land before Lapsset proceeds.
He said Garissa leaders and residents are united in supporting the project but those implementing it have not addressed land compensation.
“We are happy with this project; in fact, we support it and shall facilitate its implementation,” the governor said.
P14
w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m
Week 40 10•October•2019