Page 4 - DMEA Week 11 2021

DMEA COMMENTARY DMEA

Angola awards Soyo refinery

contract amid signs of progress

Angola’s downstream modernisation and expansion strategy burst

into life this week with the award of a contract for the construction

of the Soyo refinery and another for work on a unit in Cabinda.

AFRICA ANGOLA’S Ministry of Mineral Resources and Little-known Quanten’s website outlines the
Petroleum (MIREMPET) this week named a consortium’s plans to design, construct, own
consortium led by California-based electrical and operate the refinery, a tank farm and marine
WHAT: contractor Quanten as the winner of its tender terminal for receiving feedstock and export-
Angola’s MIREMPET has for the construction of a new refinery at Soyo in ing products, and all associated infrastructure
awarded a contract to the northern Zaire Province. including power generation. With Quanten at
a US-led consortium to Meanwhile, in a sign that momentum may first glance appearing to have little in the way of
develop the $3.5bn Soyo finally be building in the Angolan downstream, relevant experience, the award looks to be yet
refinery. the UK company developing another new plant another ambitious refining project award to a
at Cabinda announced that it had awarded a company that will struggle to bring it to fruition.
WHY: major contract for construction work at the However, the consortium notes that its “team
Luanda has tried since facility. members, affiliates, subcontractors and advo-
the mid-2000s to expand cates may include (subject to negotiations and
its refining capacity, Quanten leap of faith contracts)”: KBR, McDermott, Cisco, Berklee
but abortive efforts to For Soyo, MIREMPET awarded a $3.5bn build, University’s Renewable and Appropriate Energy
construct new facilities own and operate (BOO) contract entailing the Laboratory (RAEL), the US government’s
have so far proved construction of a 100,000 barrel per day (bpd) Department of Commerce, Department of State
unsuccessful. refinery that is due to come into operation in and its Prosper Africa initiative.
2024. Indeed, US government support for the por-
WHAT NEXT: According to Quanten, the facility will pro- ject was expressed by the Ambassador to Angola
The strategy is dominated duce “consumer-ready end products such as gas- Nina Maria Fite, who wrote on Twitter: “A strong
by the oft-delayed and oline, diesel, jet fuel and asphalt, and is protected #USAngola commercial relationship is good for
increasingly cumbersome from adverse geopolitical events” and will also the US and Angola. Congrats to the US con-
200,000 bpd Lobito employ stringent pollution and sulphur content sortium of companies led by Quanten LLC on
project, which is notable requirements. winning the $3.5bn public tender to build an oil
by its absence from The winning Quanten Consortium is com- refinery in Soyo! $2.5bn in US exports supports
recent announcements. prised of US firms Quanten, TGT and Aurum US jobs.”
& Sharp and local technical services firm ATIS With so much US export credit involved, the
Nebest-Angola. consortium is better placed than those involved
The group came out on top, following a ten- in abortive efforts to ramp up Angola’s down-
der process that was launched in October 2019. stream capabilities.
Between September and December 2020, due Meanwhile, the affiliated Quanten Con-
diligence was carried out by PwC on eight bid- sortium Aruba won a tender to refurbish and
ders, with five consortia going through to the resume operations at the island’s 235,000 bpd
final round. China’s Jiangsu Sinochem Con- refinery, promising to invest up to $3.5bn in
struction Co. was disqualified for insufficient Aruba. At the time, Quanten CEO Jeff Myers
documentation. told Argus: “We’re going to make this a show-
Quanten was joined in the last round by case. Refineries are not going away in the near
China National Machinery & Equipment Import term. We’re going to show how a refinery can
& Export Corporation (CMEC), Gemcorp Cap- reduce its carbon footprint.”
ital (UK), Tobaka Investment Group (South While the involvement of state-level back-
Africa), SDRC (China), Satarem (Switzerland) ing is doubtless a major feather in the cap of
and CHC, and won with a final score of 31.5. The Quanten, in building and overhauling 335,000
CMEC Consortium finished second with 30.9, bpd of refining capacity over two projects at one
followed by Gemcorp with 29.9, which won the time, the company may have bitten off more than
contract for the Cabinda refinery. it can chew.

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