Page 9 - DMEA Week 05 2022

DMEA REFINING DMEA

NOC says Honeywell UOP

interested in southern refinery

AFRICA LIBYA’S National Oil Corp. (NOC) this week In 2013, then Prime Minister Ali Zeidan
said that US firm Honeywell UOP was interested said that the plant would be built in Awbari,
in taking part in projects in the country, includ- around 55 km to the east of the oilfield, with a
ing a southern oil refinery. larger, 300,000 bpd unit to be constructed in the
Without specifying the location of the refin- northern coastal city of Tobruk. The units were
ery, NOC said: “Details of work scope and intended to cater to local fuel demand. Reports
implementation contracts will be discussed in have also suggested that the city of Sebha, to the
the coming days.” east of Awbari, is the location.
In October, the company said it had begun Meanwhile, unity government Prime Min-
work on constructing a new refinery near the ister Abdulhamid Dbeibah said: “The financial
country’s El Sharara oilfield, providing further coverage is ready for this project and the spec-
information about the planned facility. ifications and technical designs are ready with
Company chairman Mustafa Sanalla said NOC.” He added: “Today we announce the start
that the so-called South Refinery would be com- of a giant step, the actual start of the construction
pleted and come on stream within the next three of an oil refinery project in the south, [for] which
years, noting that it would cost around $500- the people of the region have been waiting for
600mn. He noted that the facility was expected many years.”
to achieve an annual income of $75mn. Libya’s current refining slate comprises facili-
The refinery will be run by NOC subsidiary ties at Ras Lanuf (220,000 bpd), Zawiya (120,000
Zallaf Co. to produce LPG, jet fuel and other bpd), Tobruk (20,000 bpd) and Sarir (10,000
products, including 1.4mn litres per day of gaso- bpd), all of which are operated by NOC.
line and 1.1mn litres per day of diesel. Operations at each of these, like those at the
The precise location and full throughput country’s oilfields and terminals, have been dis-
capacity have not yet been revealed, but plans rupted at various points over the past decade.
have previously been announced for the con- NOC also announced this week that it had
struction of a 50,000 barrel per day (bpd) unit temporarily suspended exports from the ports
near El Sharara. UK-based Petrofac previously of Brega, Zueitina, Ras Lanuf, Al Zawiya, Melita
carried out a feasibility study, which it updated and Al Sidra owing to “bad weather conditions
in 2020. along the coast”.™
FUELS

Ardova starts work on Nigerian LPG depot

AFRICA ARDOVA, a Nigerian petroleum product mar- Demand is sure to rise in the long term, he noted,
keting company, has broken ground on a new since the Nigerian government’s “Decade of Gas”
LPG storage facility that will be the largest of its initiative, which aims to promote the gasification
kind in West Africa. of the country’s economy, involves encouraging
At a ceremony marking the start of construc- the use of LPG as fuel for cooking and other
tion at the 8.8-hectare site in the Ijora settlement household uses. The construction of the storage
in Lagos, Ardova’s CEO Olumide Adeosun said depot “indicates the direction of travel for our
that the company intended to complete the facil- company, as it spotlights our confidence in LPG
ity and begin operations in December of this as the fuel of the future in Nigeria, in congruence
year. When finished, he added, the storage depot with both the Nigerian government’s gas expan-
will be capable of holding 20,000 tonnes of LPG. sion plan, which seeks to make LPG mainstream
Adeosun went on to say that Ardova was at the end of the decade, and the present grow-
building the LPG storage facility partly because ing rate of in-country consumer adoption of the
of its commitment to derive a larger share of product,” he commented. “Ardova’s investment
its total revenues from cleaner fuels. He also in this facility supersedes the expected commer-
stressed, though, that the project was part of a cial returns, as the company is equally focused
wider effort to transform Ardova into an inte- on the positive environmental and human
grated energy company capable of offering a impact that increased access to gas will create.”
wider array of products. He added: “I am confident that we will deliver
Additionally, he expressed confidence in a world-class facility that will continue to yield
Ardova’s decision to expand its LPG business. results for the company in decades to come.”™

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