Page 9 - AfrOil Week 13 2021

AfrOil PERFORMANCE AfrOil

Prempeh pledged support for Tullow’s invest- frustration, however. Last year, Tullow reported
ment programme, saying that the West African a decline in reserves at Enyenra and said that
country’s government hoped to see oil output Ghana National Gas Co. (GNGC) was request-
increase, since higher production levels would ing lower volumes of associated gas from Jubilee
generate more revenue for Accra. Ghanaian and TEN. ™
authorities believe that “honesty and collabora-
tion” will benefit both the country and Tullow,
creating a “a win-win situation between our two
parties,” he remarked.
To date, Tullow has invested more than
$19bn in exploration and production operations
in Ghana. Its projects have generated more than
$6bn in revenue for the government to date.
The company has said before that its develop-
ment strategy hinges on upstream development
projects in Ghana’s offshore zone. Late last year,
Al-Monthiry was quoted by Reuters as saying
that Tullow aimed to sink 26 wells at Jubilee and
another 23 at TEN by 2030.
He also said at the time that Tullow intended
to spend $180mn in that country in 2021,
more than half of its total investment budget
of $325mn. As of press time, it was not clear
whether that target was still in place.
Tullow acquired stakes in these Ghanaian
fields in 2004, via its purchase of South Afri-
ca-based Energy Africa. Since then, the fields
have become the firm’s largest productive
assets. They have also been the source of some TEN and Jubilee are Tullow’s main assets in Africa (Image: Tullow Oil)

With Zinder refinery closed,

Niger suspends oil exports

NIGER NIGER has halted oil exports this week, ded- However, with Niamey’s lofty ambitions of
icating flows to meet domestic demand as the increasing production to 120,000 bpd by 2024,
country’s sole refinery at Zinder awaits a part export options have been mulled. In 2018, a
for repair. memorandum of understanding (MoU) was
“A failure occurred at the catalytic cracking signed with Nigeria for the collaborative devel-
unit” on March 26, according to Zhao Guang- opment of a refinery and an oil pipeline between
ming, director-general of the refinery’s operator, the two countries, with oil to be sourced from
Soraz. This brought refining operations to a halt, Niger’s Tenere block.
he wrote in a letter to the country’s Minister of Considering Nigeria’s disastrous track
Petroleum. record in refining, the prospects of building a
Zhao added: “To effectively guarantee the state-sponsored $2bn, 100,000-150,000 bpd
supply of the domestic market with refined unit were always slim and the need for such a
products during the stoppage of refining, we project debateable. Indeed, little has been heard
propose to suspend export loadings.” of it since. At the time, Jubril Kareem, energy
A refinery employee told Reuters that the research analyst at Lagos-based Ecobank, com-
spare part was expected to arrive on April 3 or 4. mented that Chinese investors offered Niger “a
The 20,000 barrel per day (bpd) facility is a better alternative.”
60:40 joint venture between the Nigerien gov- This is now playing out in the form of a
ernment and China National Petroleum Corp. CNPC-backed, $7bn pipeline to carry crude
(CNPC). from the Agadem basin to Benin’s Port Seme.
Chinese companies also own 65% of Niger’s Engineering work for the 1,950-km pipeline has
only producing field, Agadem – with Taiwan’s already been carried out by CNPC-linked firms,
CPC holding 20% and the state 15%. Agadem’s with the Chinese firm and partner West African
full 20,000 bpd output is piped to Zinder for Oil Pipeline Benin Co. (Wapco Benin) kicking
processing. off the initial construction phase in late 2019.

Week 13 31•March•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P9