Page 11 - AfrOil Week 21 2020

AfrOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT AfrOil
Tazama pipeline operator seeks $400mn for expansion project
TANZANIA/ZAMBIA
TAZAMA Pipelines, the operator of the Tanza- nia Zambia Mafuta (Tazama) crude oil pipeline, is seeking financing for an expansion project.
According to Abraham Saunyama, Tazama’s regional manager for Tanzania, the company hopes to borrow around $400mn for the project and will use the funds to expand the diameter of its entire system to 12 inches (305 mm). “What we want is to make the whole pipeline from Dar [es Salaam] to Ndola a 12-inch [diameter] to increase the performance of the pipeline,” he explained in an interview with the Tanzania Daily News.
Currently, Saunyama noted, some sections of the 1,710-km Tazama line consist of 8-inch (203-mm) pipe. The differences in diameter serve to limit the system’s capacity and have brought throughput down to about 660,000 tonnes per year (tpy), or 13,200 barrels per day (bpd), he said. This is equivalent to just 60% of Tazama’s design capacity of 1.1mn tpy (22,000 bpd), but volumes should rise to 95% of design capacity, or 1.045mn tpy (20,900 bpd) after the installation of wider pipes, he said.
Tazama intends to import the pipes it needs to complete the project but will make extensive use of local resources, he added. Tanzanian and Zambian crews will be responsible for construc- tion and installation, he said.
Saunyama indicated that Tazama had dis- cussed the matter with several foreign finan- cial institutions but did not name any potential lenders. He also stressed that the company was
in a position to assume a debt of this size. “We are capable of paying slowly, and a number of institutions have come forward [and] want to provide the loan to us,” he told the Tanzania Daily News.
The Tazama pipeline has been in service since 1968. Equity in the operating company is divided between Zambia’s government, with 66.7%, and Tanzania’s government, with 33.3%.
The pipeline system was originally built to facilitate shipments of diesel from the Indeni refinery in Ndola, Zambia’s second largest city, to the port of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s largest city and former capital. Later, though, the oper- ator reversed the direction of flow and began using the link to import crude for processing at the Indeni plant.
According to Saunyama, Tazama is inter- ested in reversing flows again so that the Indeni refinery can resume petroleum product exports. “We want to go back to pumping diesel again,” he stated.™
The Tazama system terminates in Ndola, Zambia (Photo: Tazama Pipelines)
Mozambique LNG group secures more than $14bn worth of loans
INVESTMENT
MOZAMBIQUE
FRANCE’S Total and its partners in the Mozam- bique LNG project are reportedly gearing up to sign a credit deal worth more than $14bn with a group of banks.
Sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg on May 20 that the Mozambique LNG consortium had been in talks with a large group of lenders on a deal worth $15bn.
About 20 commercial banks have agreed to make money available for the project and will
sign an agreement before the end of June, they said.
Then on May 21, Reuters published a slightly different account, quoting two sources with knowledge of the matter as saying that Mozam- bique LNG had secured $14.4bn worth of loans from a group of around 20 banks. One of the news agency’s sources reported that the parties were set to finalise an agreement in the third quarter of the year.
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