Page 16 - DMEA Week 24

DMEA REFINING DMEA

Nigeria’s NNPC to build 200,000

bpd condensate refinery

NIGERIA NIGERIAN National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) to see this happen, he said. The bill had been
plans to build a new 200,000 barrel per day (bpd) expected to become law by the end of July, but
NNPC wants to condensate refinery, to maximise value from the COVID-19 crisis caused delays.
maximise value from Nigeria’s reserves and help the country curb its The NNPC head added that a licensing
Nigeria’s reserves and fuel imports, the group’s managing director Mele round would take place in 2021 to attract more
curb its fuel imports. Kyari said on June 12. upstream investors.
The plant’s output will complement pro- “I know for sure that there would be a licens-
duction at the 650,000 bpd Dangote refinery, ing round that will come next year. We are work-
due to start up next year, Kyari said in a virtual ing on our petroleum legislation to make sure
conference. that before the end of this year, we have the petro-
Even though it is Africa’s biggest oil producer, leum legislation in place in such a way that there
Nigeria is heavily reliant on fuel imports because is visibility around what investors can expect,” he
its main refineries operated by NNPC have fallen said.
into disrepair. Most domestic fuel output is at
illegal refineries in the Niger Delta region that On gas
process oil siphoned from pipelines. NNPC is a partner in Nigeria LNG, the interna-
“I know it is a difficult thing to explain why tional consortium also comprising Italy’s Eni,
an oil-producing country would become a net France’s Total and Royal Dutch Shell that exports
importer of petroleum products,” Kyare said. Nigerian gas in liquid form.
“The reason is very simple, we couldn’t fix our The group recently awarded a $4bn engi-
refineries and that is also very difficult to explain, neering, procurement and construction (EPC)
we started this many years ago. For 20 years, all contract to add a seventh train at Nigeria’s Bonny
attempts to get the refineries fixed failed for LNG terminal. Together with the debottleneck-
many reasons.” ing of existing trains, the new unit will boost
NNPC’s plan now is to attract partners to NLNG’s liquefaction capacity to over 30mn
finance the repair and upgrade of the refineries. tonnes per year.
“We are fixing our refineries, we don’t have all In a separate virtual conference, NLNG head
the cash to put there but we are going to do is to Tony Attah lamented that it had taken 15 years
get a partnership with others to put their money for Nigeria to commit to developing another
as investors and they’ll get their money out of the train. In this time Nigeria’s share of the global
refinery,” Kyare said. LNG market has fallen from 10% to under 7%.
A final investment decision on the first 50,000 “If you blink you are left behind,” he said.
bpd train of the condensate refinery will be taken In the past it has been suggested that Bonny
before the end of July, he estimated, with overall LNG could host as many as 12 trains. Attah
construction taking three years. called for Nigeria to pick up the pace in develop-
“The implication of these is that within three ing its gas resources.
years, this country would be sufficient in the “The Nigerian story is not complete without
supply of finished petroleum products after that, gas,” he said. “Gas is a major resource. We don’t
we’ll be looking for markets. We know that we want fossil fuels to have disappeared in 50 years’
can deliver on this,” he said. time and we didn’t use the resources we had
Kyari noted that Nigeria was due to pass a when we could.”
new petroleum bill by the end of 2020, providing The CEO said that no delays to the seventh
better conditions for investing in the country’s train’s construction were currently envisaged as
oil and gas reserves. Nigerian President Muham- a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The train
madu Buhari and both legislative chambers want is due to start production in 2025. ™

P16 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 24 18•June•2020