Page 16 - AfrOil Week 21 2020

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The government made several unsuccessful attempts to sell the plant to investors.
The Samir plant’s union workers have pre- viously opposed the refinery’s use for storage, instead demanding that the government nation- alise the plant and restart production. After the state offer, however, they issued a statement saying they welcomed the plant’s use as a fuel reserve, the North Africa Post said.
Morocco’s MYA Energy signed a deal with
Russia’s state-controlled development bank VEB in October last year to construct a new 100,000 bpd refinery in northern Morocco, to end the country’s dependence on imports.
The facility’s capacity may be increased to 200,000 bpd at a later stage.
Morocco’s energy import bill reached MAD17.5bn in the first three months of this year, according to state statistics, down 4.8% from the same period of 2019. ™
International majors reportedly halt all drilling in Angola
ANGOLA
OIL and gas drilling has reportedly come to a virtual stop in Angola, as crude prices remain low and the coronavirus (COVID-19) pan- demic continues to hammer global energy demand.
As of last week, all of the major international oil companies (IOCs) working in Angola had halted the rigs they have been using for explo- ration and development drilling programmes, Reuters said on May 20. The shutdown has affected BP (UK), Chevron (US), Eni (Italy), ExxonMobil (US) and Total (France), the news agency said, citing industry experts, company sources and Refinitiv ship-tracking data.
As of press time, neither BP nor ExxonMobil had confirmed the report. Likewise, Angola’s national oil company (NOC) Sonangol and var- ious government ministries declined to respond to queries from Reuters.
By contrast, Total, which serves as operator at fields that account for nearly 50% of Angola’s oil production, confirmed that it had put its drill- ing operations on hold. When contacted by the news agency, a company spokesperson said that Total had chosen to focus on existing produc- tion sites in light of the coronavirus outbreak.
“We have suspended all our drilling activi- ties like all other operators in Angola,” said the spokesperson, who was not named. He indi- cated that the French major hoped to bring its offshore rigs and drilling vessels back online gradually, “as the situation allows,” but did not comment on the fate of specific projects.
Total began slowing the pace of work in Angola’s offshore zone on March 7, when it ter- minated its contract for Valaris D-8, a drillship owned by K-based Valaris, after learning of a technical problem on the vessel. Since then, it has decided against using three other drillships – namely, the Maersk Voyager, the Seadrill West
Gemini and the Transocean Skyros. The Seadrill West Gemini has been docked in the Namibian port of Walvis Bay, while the other two have been anchored at port facilities in Luanda.
Eni, meanwhile, informed Reuters that it had halted drilling at two new offshore fields. It was referring to the Agogo and Ndungu sections of Block 15/06, both of which it described as “sig- nificant” at the time of discovery last year.
Chevron, for its part, indicated that it too had suspended new drilling projects. A spokesper- son for the US major told Reuters that Chevron intended to focus on “cost-managed produc- tion” operations at its existing fields offshore Angola. The company began ramping down activity on this front in late March, when it moved the Valaris JU-109 drillship from one of its licence areas to a dock near Luanda before cancelling its contract with the vessel’s owner, Valaris, the news agency noted. ™
Eni has halted drilling at two sections of Block 15/06 (Image: Eni)
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 21 27•May•2020