Page 15 - AfrOil Week 21 2020

AfrOil POLICY AfrOil
EWURA seeks to promote local content in Tanzanian projects
TANZANIA
TANZANIA’S Energy and Water Utilities Reg- ulatory Authority (EWURA) has indicated that it wants to see more local companies involved in the development of the country’s oil and gas resources.
Tobias Rwelamila, EWURA’s manager for natural gas distribution, said last week that his agency had not reached its target for promoting Tanzanian participation in development pro- jects. As of December 2019, he noted, EWURA had only added 428 domestic firms to its regis- ter of service providers authorised to provide oil and gas-related services, far short of its goal of more than 1,000.
According to the Tanzanian Daily News, the number has risen since the beginning of the year and had reached 457 as of March 2020. This rep- resents a 6.8% rise on the end-2019 figure but is still well below the target.
Rwelamila said, though, that his agency remained optimistic and was ready to work with local companies of all sizes. “EWURA has imposed no deadline restrictions for local companies interested to register as service pro- viders,” he said. “There [are] no capital analysis demands, quality-of-service specifications or [requirements related to] the lifespan of the company.”
The agency has also worked to streamline the process of application for inclusion in the reg- ister of authorised contractors, he said. Inter- ested companies can fill out and submit local content service provider (LSSP) forms online, he explained.
Expanding local participation in oil and gas projects will benefit the country by channel- ling foreign investment funds directly into the Tanzanian economy, Rwelamila commented. It will also help foreign investors, since Tanzanian service companies will charge less than their foreign counterparts, he said. “An increase in local content service providers reduces produc- tion costs and [will] subsequently add [to] gov- ernment revenues and employment,” he said, according to the Tanzanian Daily News.
The newspaper also quoted Hussein Boffu, a Tanzanian petroleum consultant, as saying that there were many ways for local companies to benefit from foreign investment in the country’s oil and gas sector. “There [are] opportunities in the supportive services, transport, shipping, logistics, accommodation, cleaning and food services [sectors] ... Most exploration activities need these services, and you can make huge [amounts of] cash when cleaning and provid- ing food service to oil companies,” Boffu said.™
PROJECTS & COMPANIES
Morocco to use closed refinery for storage
MOROCCO
MOROCCO plans to use the closed Samir oil refinery in the northern part of the country for storing fuels, the local North Africa Post news- paper reported on May 17.
The 200,000 barrel per day (bpd) refinery, controlled by Saudi billionaire Mohammed al-Amoudi’s Corral Holdings, was shut down in 2015 over unpaid taxes. This left Morocco solely reliant on imported refined products.
The judge supervising the refinery’s liquida- tion has accepted a state offer to rent its storage facilities, the North Africa Post reported. These facilities can store up to 2mn cubic metres of fuels – enough to meet Morocco’s needs for 80 days, the newspaper claimed.
Morocco hopes to take advantage of low fuel prices to build up a supply reserve. The govern- ment has called on private importers to stockpile enough fuel for 60 days of demand, to no avail.
At the time of its liquidation, the Samir plant owed more than MAD1.3bn ($130mn) in over- due taxes and had accumulated debts of over MAD44bn, according to the Moroccan press.
The Samir plant is Morocco’s only oil refinery (Photo: Samir)
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