Page 9 - DMEA Week 16 2022

DMEA REFINING DMEA

Dangote now hopeful of

2023 refinery start-up

AFRICA THE head of Nigeria’s Dangote Group told the “75% hydraulic testing ... as well as 70% of electri-
country’s President that a new mega refinery cal cable fitting have been completed preparatory
near the capital Lagos is expected to be commis- to the completion of the refinery in the fourth
sioned before next year’s elections. quarter of this year.”
Following a meeting at the presidential villa Expectations for the refinery’s impact are
in Abuja, Aliko Dangote said that the $19bn, high and the Governor of the Central Bank of
650,000 barrel per day Dangote Refinery Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, reiterated optimism
should be completed by the end of the current that the Dangote unit will significantly reduce
administration. Nigeria’s commodity import bill.
“By the grace of God, Mr President will come Speaking during a meeting of the Interna-
and commission it (refinery) before the end of tional Monetary Fundy in Washington, he said:
his term next year.” “With Dangote Refinery coming up with the
The comment appears to temper expectations 650,000 barrel per day, hopefully by the end of
that the facility, seen providing a major boost to the year, that will reduce the demand for foreign
the Nigerian economy and turning the country exchange that normally will go for the importa-
from an importer of petroleum products to a net tion of petroleum products.”
exporter, will begin operations this year. He added: “I have also said that between
Construction work at the refinery is complete the importation of refined petroleum products
and testing is ongoing ahead of the commence- and other products like rice, sugar and wheat,
ment of refining operations. Dangote said in we spend close to about 40 per cent of the for-
February that the unit would come on stream in eign exchange that is needed to fund imports
September at an initial capacity of 540,000 bpd, into Nigeria … if we find, for instance, a situa-
ramping up to full capacity in early 2023. tion whereby around the end of this year, we no
Meanwhile, Dangote Group executive for longer need foreign exchange to import petro-
strategy, capital projects and portfolio develop- leum product, rice or maize, I believe that the
ment Devakumar Edwin, said in late March that demand will drop.”™

Senegal’s SAR renovations near completion

AFRICA SENEGAL’S sole refinery is undergoing a major had been expected to be completed by the end
renovation project that will increase capacity at of March.
the facility and allow it to meet more of local fuel Shareholder disagreements over a proposed
demand. recapitalisation slowed progress, but a court rul-
Current capacity at the Societe Africaine de ing in December gave the project the green light
Raffinage (SAR) facility in Dakar sits at 24,000 with the backing of the Africa Finance Corp.
barrels per day (bpd) and plans have been and the project is understood to remain ongo-
mooted at various stages over the past decade. ing with TechnipFMC and SAP hired to oversee
SAR is majority owned by Senegalese state ongoing maintenance and to digitise operations,
oil firm Petrosen (46%), with financier Locaf- respectively.
rique (34%), Sahara Energy Resources (8.18%), Dakar is keen to ramp up downstream capac-
TotalEnergies (6.82%) and local trader ITOC ity further as launch nears on the country’s San-
(5%) holding the remaining shares. gomar oilfield and the Grand Tortue Ahmeyim
After delays relating to the pandemic, turna- gas asset shared with Mauritania.
round maintenance (TAM) and expansion work Plans are in place to raise SAR’s capacity to
finally kicked off in November 2021, with plans 50,000 bpd which would more than cater to Sen-
showing that capacity will be increased to 30,000 egal’s current 32,000 bpd domestic demand and
bpd through debottlenecking, the expansion of allow it to export the excess.
the catalytic reformer and the addition of a new This would require the addition of a hydro-
preflash unit. cracking unit, bringing the facility into compli-
At that point, the four-month programme ance with international standards.™

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