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AfrOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT AfrOil

Tunisia reviewing regulations

governing Skhira oil terminal

TUNISIA TUNISIA’S Transport and Logistics Minister of the Skhira facility.
Moez Chakchouk reported last week on the sta- The terminal handles crude oil from fields
tus of efforts to determine the fate of the Skhira in Tunisia and south-eastern Algeria. It covers
oil terminal. an area of 20 square km and is capable of berth-
In a speech to members of the country’s ing two oil tankers and one chemical tanker at
Parliament, Chakchouk noted that officials in a time. ™
Tunis were reviewing regulations that related
to the management of the terminal, which was
awarded to the Sahara Pipeline Transport Com-
pany (TRAPSA) under a concession agreement
in 1958. The concession originally had a term of
50 years and was supposed to expire in 2008, but
Tunisia’s government has not taken any steps to
renew it or find a new operator, he explained.
In the meantime, though, Tunis has
instructed the Office of the Merchant Marine
and Ports (OMMP) “to clarify the legal aspects
relating to the operation of this port and to allow
the company to operate it as part of a new con-
cession,” he said. He did not say when this review
was likely to be completed or what the govern-
ment might do with the terminal.
According to previous reports, Tunisia’s gov-
ernment has announced plans to draw up a new
master plan for the operation and development The Skhira terminal can berth two oil tankers at a time (Photo: TRAPSA)

Iraq and Egypt continue talks

on crude oil pipeline extension

EGYPT DURING talks this week with Egypt’s ambassa- countries, especially Egypt.”
dor in Baghdad, Iraq’s Oil Minister discussed the Meanwhile, Thomson Reuters Zawya quoted
possibility of extending the long-awaited 1mn Maher Taher, Governor of Zubair, as saying that
barrel per day (bpd) Basra-Aqaba oil pipeline the planned pipeline would have four pumping
into Egypt. stations in Iraq and three in Jordan. The pro-
Iraq’s Ihsan Abdul Jabbar said that he and ject is currently in the engineering study phase,
Ambassador Ahmed Ismail has talked about Taher said.
extending the pipeline, an idea that was sug- The Iraqi Ministry of Oil (MoO) was due to
gested by Egypt’s Minister of Petroleum Tarek announce contract winners for the $5bn con-
el-Molla last year during a tripartite between duit by the end of last year. In May, the minis-
Egypt, Iraq and Jordan. try clarified that the pipeline inside Iraq will
“Iraq welcomes the contributions of Egyp- be installed according to the engineering, pro-
tian oil companies to the implementation of curement, construction and financing contract
infrastructure projects in the oil sector,” Abdul (EPCF) model, while in Jordan it will follow the
Jabbar said. build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) model.
He added: “One of the objectives of the gov- Meanwhile, the Jordanian government has
ernment and the ministry is to work towards also approved a deal with the Iraqi federal gov-
strengthening relations with [other] countries in ernment to build two oil and gas pipelines con-
the world and the region, and with neighbouring necting the neighbouring countries.

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 12 24•March•2021