Page 8 - AfrOil Week 14 2021
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Lukoil has tried once before to acquire a stake venture its name.
in the RSSD group. It arranged to buy the 40% Oil was discovered at the block in 2014, and
stake held by Cairn Energy (UK), only to have the joint venture has estimated that it contains
Woodside pre-empt the deal in August 2020. 645mn barrels of oil equivalent in recoverable
RSSD’s licence area includes three sepa- reserves, including 485mn barrels of crude oil
rate fields – Rufisque, Sangomar Offshore and and 160mn boe of natural gas. Woodside hopes
Sangomar Deep Offshore, which give the joint to begin production in 2023.
NNPC’s Port Harcourt refinery has been off line for about 18 months (File Photo)
NNPC, Tecnimont sign Port Harcourt deal
NIGERIA NIGERIAN National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) Italian company was due to carry out the engi-
has signed an engineering, procurement and neering, procurement and construction (EPC)
construction (EPC) contract with Italy’s Tec- contract on the required rehabilitation. At the
nimont for the overhaul of the Port Harcourt time, the second phase was to be fulfilled in col-
refinery complex. laboration with an unnamed ‘partner’, which
The $1.5bn contract was signed by NNPC’s was later revealed to be Japan’s JGC, which with
managing director of the Port Harcourt Refin- Italy’s Saipem was the original builder of the
ery, Ahmed Dikko, and Davide Pellizola, larger of the two Port Harcourt units.
vice-president of Tecnimont Sub-Saharan NNPC agreed a loan of around $1bn with
Africa. lenders led by Cairo-based African Export-Im-
The Port Harcourt complex is comprised of port Bank (Afreximbank) in February. Nigerian
two units, built roughly 25 years apart, with joint Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Timi-
total capacity of 210,000 barrels per day (bpd), pre Sylva noted that once the rehabilitation has
making it Nigeria’s largest refinery. However, it been completed, a “professional operations and
has been shut down for around 18 months, cit- maintenance company [will be hired] to main-
ing repairs, though these have not yet begun. tain the refinery … this is one of the conditions
Tecnimont will carry out the work in three of the lenders”. He added: “That’s embedded in
phases, with the first phase to bring the unit back discussions with the lenders.”
to 90% nameplate capacity within 18 months, NNPC managing director Mele Kyari said in
the second to be completed within 24 months late March that the “real cost” of the rehab work
and the final stage within 44 months. is $1.34bn.
The Italian firm was awarded a contract in Meanwhile, the exec created some confu-
March 2019 for a two-phase programme, with sion by saying that the latest turnaround main-
fellow Italian firm Eni contracted as technical tenance (TAM) at Port Harcourt was carried out
adviser. The roughly $50mn first stage included in 2000 and the high cost of the new programme
a six-month ‘integrity check’ and equipment was caused by the previous TAM having been
inspection at the site, as well as ‘relevant engi- poorly executed. NNPC previously said that
neering and planning activities’. TAM had not been carried out for more than
Subject to the completion of phase one, the four decades.
P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 14 07•April•2021
