Page 11 - AfrOil Week 13 2020

AfrOil POLICY AfrOil
 “Government cannot grant their requests now because the protection of human life is more important than any other thing, and we shall do everything necessary to fulfil our obligation in this direction,” he wrote.
Later, the governor qualified his response somewhat, saying that his administration would be willing to reconsider the manner at some point in the future. “[We] shall review our restrictions concerning [these five companies’] activities when we are fully convinced that it will be reasonable to do so,” he remarked. “Let me reiterate that we have taken these painful deci- sions because we cannot afford to lose any life in this state.”
Nyesom Wike ordered a complete closure of
NLNG’s Trains 1 and 2 (Photo: KBR
Rivers’ borders, as well as a complete shutdown of all local markets, on March 25. He took this step after the Nigerian Centre for Disease Con- trol (NCDC) identified the first case in the state, saying it was a necessary to curb the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
The coronavirus outbreak has hit Nigeria’s economy hard, as it has reduced demand for crude oil, the country’s main export and pri- mary source of revenue. In turn, the decline in demand has been a blow for NLNG. In mid-March, Mele Kyari, the group managing director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC), said that at least 12 cargoes of LNG from the four-member consortium had been stranded and could not find buyers. ™
PROJECTS & COMPANIES
Liberia set to commission its first refinery in Monrovia
LIBERIA
LIBERIA, which is just emerging from a months-long fuel crisis, is preparing to com- mission a 10,000 barrel per day (bpd) modular refinery in its capital Monrovia.
The project is operated by locally owned Conex Oil and Gas Holdings and will be built at the company’s existing petroleum storage ter- minal in the city. A factory acceptance test for the refinery was due to take place this week, its Houston-based manufacturer VFuels said on social media.
Conex is building the plant as part of the sec- ond-phase development of its 550,000-tonne petroleum storage terminal, which has been in operation since 2016. Its partner in the project is the state-owned Liberian Petroleum Refinery.
The company has not disclosed a definitive
timeframe for initiating production at the refin-
ery. But it was originally scheduled to come on stream within 24 months of the project’s launch
in April last year. 
VFuels is supplying equipment for the refinery (Photo: VFuels)
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