Page 5 - DMEA Week 11 2021
P. 5
DMEA COMMENTARY DMEA
Cabinda contract
Meanwhile, Gemcorp handed out a construc-
tion contract to Odebrecht Engenharia e Con-
strução (OEC) to build a crude distillation unit
(CDU) as part of the project to develop a 60,000
bpd refinery in the Cabinda exclave.
The UK-based company holds a 90% stake
in the $920mn project alongside state-owned
Sonangol Refining (Sonaref). Gemcorp took a
final investment decision (FID) on the project
last October, saying that the partners intend to
build the facility in stages.
The first stage will involve the construction of
a crude distillation unit with a capacity of 30,000
bpd, as well as storage tanks that can hold up to BP, Eni and Total have all previously held
1.2mn barrels of oil, while the second and third talks with Luanda about possible investment,
stages will involve doubling the plant’s capacity and the Italian firm agreed in late 2015 to review
and adding secondary processing facilities. the plans.
The refinery will be built on the Malembo A deal signed nearly a decade earlier with
plan, around 30 km north of the provincial cap- Chinese refining giant Sinopec to develop and
ital, and is expected to produce gasoline, diesel, fund the scheme lapsed, while a front-end engi-
fuel oil and Jet A1. neering and design (FEED) study on the Lobito
According to Gemcorp, the first phase plant was completed by KBR in 2010. In mid-
will cost around $220mn, with the remaining 2015, Engineers India was awarded a contract for
$700mn of the budgeted amount split across FEED validation and review of basic engineering
phases two and three. and design.
The company previously said it anticipated However, while the most recent sign of life
operations commencing early next year, though came in 2019, when Sonangol said that it had
this timeline appears ambitious. whittled down a list of 68 bidders for tenders to
construct either the Soyo or Lobito plant to seven
Downstream development preferred bidders, no award has yet been made
Both the Soyo and Cabinda plants are part of for the larger facility.
a broader strategy to modernise and expand A 1.5 square-km site has been allocated just
Angola’s refining capabilities, which are cur- to the north of Lobito, while Sonaref anticipates
rently limited to the ageing 38,000 bpd Luanda that the plant will be completed in 2025.
refinery near the capital. However, with the Cabinda and Soyo plants
The largest part of this broader project cen- expected to increase Angola’s total refining
tres on the long-planned 200,000 bpd Lobito capacity to nearly 200,000 bpd, much will depend
refinery in Benguela Province which has been on the appetite to build an export-only facility,
in planning since the turn of the century, with which given concerns about the trajectory of the
costs gradually escalating to recent estimates of country’s upstream production, may prove even
more than $8bn. trickier than previously envisioned.
Week 11 18•March•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P5
