Page 9 - DMEA Week 17 2022
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DMEA REFINING DMEA
Algeria completes Hassi
Messaoud refinery
AFRICA SONATRACH, Algeria’s national oil company The nearby Hassi Messaoud oilfield is Alge-
(NOC), has announced the launch of a 60,000 ria’s largest. It was discovered in 1956 by the
barrel per day (bpd) greenfield refinery in the French colonial National Society for Petroleum
eastern town of Hassi Messaoud. Research and Exploitation in Algeria (SN Repal)
Company CEO Toufik Hakkar, who attended before being nationalised in 1971. Production
the unveiling ceremony for the plant, was quoted peaked at 720,000 bpd in 1977 and the field cur-
in a statement as saying that the facility was 99% rently produces around 450,000 bpd.
complete. The refinery was one of a raft of pro- Algeria’s total crude output is just over 1mn
jects mentioned by Sonatrach in January when bpd. The country’s oil exports have increased
Hakkar said the company had budgeted $40bn with the easing of OPEC+ quotas, growing from
for its 2022-2026 capital programme, with $8bn an average of 375,000 bpd in 2021 to around
allocated for this year alone. 390,000 bpd over the past two months.
The plant was first proposed in 2012 as one of Also included in Sonatrach’s four-year plan is
five planned 110,000 bpd refineries; it is unclear the expansion of the Skikda refinery, the coun-
whether the newly completed unit is yet to be try’s largest oil-processing plant, to allow for the
expanded further. conversion of by-products into fuels.
Amec Foster Wheeler, now part of the UK’s The facility, which is located in the north-
Wood Group, won a front-end engineering and east of the country, has a current throughput
design (FEED) contract covering the Hassi Mes- capacity of 356,500 bpd. In November, a fire
saoud facility, as well as two others at Tiaret in the broke out during maintenance at the refinery,
northwest and Biskra in the northeast. A $3.7bn injuring eight workers, one of which later died
engineering, procurement and construction from his injuries. The fire, which started at an
(EPC) contract was awarded to a consortium idled reforming unit which had already been
comprised of Spanish company Tecnicas Reu- shut down for repairs, was quickly extinguished,
nidas (55%) and South Korea’s Samsung Engi- according to a statement from the Ministry of
neering (45%). Energy and Mines.
FUELS
Uganda to produce LPG from Hoima refinery
AFRICA UGANDA plans to produce 220,000 tonnes per BakerHughes GE, Italy’s Saipem, and Mauri-
year (tpy) of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from tian-registered Yaatra Africa and Lionworks
the planned oil refinery as the country targets Group.
phasing out LPG imports. Once the country’s oil In February, Uganda’s energy minister held
refinery is in place, LPG capacity will be about talks this week with the consortium developing
24 times the current estimated demand of 9,000 the country’s first oil refinery, days after a final
tonnes of LPG in the country, said the Ugandan investment decision (FID) was taken on the pro-
oil refinery holding company’s general manager, ject to develop the larger of the oilfields that will
Michael Nkambo Mugerwa. provide its feedstock.
The East Africa country, which discovered During a visit to Italy, Uganda’s Minister of
oil reserves a decade ago, has seen its produc- Energy and Mineral Development Ruth Nanka-
tion timeline changed many times due to gov- birwa discuss discussed the status of the facility
ernment disagreements with field investors over at Kabale in Hoima district with the AGRC. The
taxes and development policies. group holds a 60% share in the refinery project
Uganda now says it expects commercial oil with the remainder held by the Uganda National
production by 2023, many years later than ini- Oil Co. (UNOC) through its Uganda Refinery
tially planned, and will construct its own oil Holding Co. (URHC) subsidiary.
refinery that should be operational by 2027. In August, the Africa Finance Corp. (AFC)
In April 2021 Uganda signed a deal with advanced $20mn for the facility’s construction
the Albertine Graben Refinery Consortium with the African Development Bank (AfDB),
(AGRC) to build and operate a 60,000 barrel per Prosper Africa and Trace and Development
day (bpd) refinery that is estimated to cost $4bn. Agency also seen providing finance for the
AGRC is comprised of US-based refinery.
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