Page 12 - AfrOil Week 21 2020

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The reasons for the discrepancies were not clear. Total has not yet commented on the matter.
According to one of Bloomberg’s sources, the list of participating banks includes Standard Bank Group (South Africa), Societe Gener- ale (France) and Rand Merchant Bank (South Africa). Societe General is acting as financial advisor for the deal, he said.
As of press time, neither Societe Generale nor Rand Merchant Bank had confirmed the news agency’s report. However, Standard Bank Group has indicated that it will provide financ- ing for the Mozambique LNG project.
Dele Kuti, the bank’s global head of oil and gas, told Bloomberg on May 20 that his company was “pleased to see the progress” made so far on securing final credit approvals for the project.
“We have also approved large participations in Mozambique LNG’s ECIC and commercial tranches,” he said. “We look forward to signing the facilities in the next few weeks.”
The $15bn credit will cover more than 65% of project costs, which have been estimated at $23bn. Total and its partners have not said how they intend to cover the remaining $8bn.
Equity in the Mozambique LNG consortium is split between Total E&P Mozambique Area 1, with 26.5%; Mitsui (Japan), with 20%; Bharat Petroleum (India), with 15%; Beas Rovuma
PERFORMANCE
Energy Mozambique (a 60:40 joint venture between ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) and Oil India Ltd (OIL), with 10%; Mozambique’s national oil company (NOC) ENH, with 10%; and PTTEP (Thailand), with 8.5%. The Total subsidiary is serving as the operator of the project.
The partners have said they hope to begin extracting gas from Area 1 offshore Mozam- bique in 2024. They will process gas from the site at an onshore facility that will have two pro- duction trains, each with a capacity of 6.44mn tonnes per year (tpy).
The facility will be the only onshore gas lique- faction plant in the country.™
Area 1 lies offshore Mozambique (Image: Total)
Official fuels have worse quality than illegal ones in Nigeria, claims report
UGANDA
OFFICIAL gasoline and diesel imports into Nigeria have worse quality than supplies pro- duced at illegal refineries in the Niger Delta, a study by the Stakeholder Democracy Network (SDN) claims.
The study compared official products that were legally imported into the country with unofficial products manufactured at basic refin- eries using oil siphoned off from pipelines. Last year it took 91 samples of diesel, gasoline and kerosene from fuel stations in Nigeria’s Rivers and Bayelsa states, and in its capital Lagos.
The intention was to use the official fuel sam- ples as a control, but SDN’s programmes director Calvin Laing said the results were “concerning.”
The unofficial diesel contained sulphur lev- els of 1,523 parts per million, while the official supplies held 2,004 ppm. A sample taken at the Oando station in Port Harcourt contained as much as 3,020 ppm.
Sulphur levels for gasoline were lower at 401 ppm for unofficial samples and 429 ppm for official ones. In comparison, the EU has a sulphur limit for diesel and gasoline of 10 ppm.
With kerosene, once again official samples had a higher sulphur content of 813 per ppm, versus 759 ppm for unofficial volumes.
Nigeria sets a limit of 3,000 ppm for diesel and 1,000 ppm for gasoline, and there is no limit on the sulphur content in kerosene. New standards were announced in 2017 but were not enforced.
Fuel quality is difficult to control in Nigeria and there are numerous reports of blending, SDN’s Alexander Sewell said.
“Nigeria is exporting high-quality low-sul- phur crude and is importing low-quality high-sulphur fuel, which is likely to be a major contributor to air pollution in the Niger Delta and across Nigeria,” Sewell said.
All fuels – both official and unofficial – are poor performing and damaging to engines.
Unofficial diesel is preferred to official diesel, despite being more viscous, Sewell said, as it is seen to last longer. The primary use of diesel is in trucks and large generators that need to run for a long time. As such, the unofficial supplies are seen as more cost-effective, he said.
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