Page 6 - AfrOil Week 35 2019

AfrOil COMMENTARY AfrOil
Angola to call tender for new re nery
A public tender for the construction of a new oil-processing plant has been launched as Luanda continues to gain traction with its downstream sector overhaul
WHAT:
The Soyo plant will
be built with a crude processing capacity
of 110,000 bpd in the northern Zaire Province.
WHY:
Current downstream capabilities are limited to the ageing Luanda re nery just outside the capital city..
WHAT NEXT:
The key project in this downstream push is
the 200,000 bpd Lobito re nery. It has been
on the table for more than a decade, but its completion will transform the sector.
ANGOLA’SMinistryofMineralResourcesand Oil (MIREMPET) this week launched an inter- national public tender for the construction of a re nery to be built in Zaire Province.
e news follows the signing of deals earlier this summer for work on the planned Cabinda re nery and for the rehabilitation of the Luanda re nery, which is the only existing unit.
At the same point, Sonangol said that it had a shortlist of seven preferred bidders to construct a 200,000 barrel per day (bpd) facility in Lobito, which has been in the planning stage for over a decade, and the government followed up with plans to create a new fuel reserve as Luanda seeks to overhaul the downstream sector, for which a lack of support has been a signi cant hindrance to diversi ed economic growth in the country.
Soyo tender
e Soyo announcement cited Public Procure- ment Law No. 9/16 of June 16 and Presidential Order No. 150/19 of August 16, which allow the work to proceed and authorise the necessary state expenditure.
e facility is designed to have a capacity of 110,000 bpd of crude to produce LPG, gaso- line, benzene, jet A-1 and kerosene. Local press reported that it would include a processing unit, a crude warehouse, transport, an accessory installation area, 79 fuel storage tanks and a pier to moor two 100-tonne tankers.
Sonangol had announced the breaking of ground on the Soyo plant in June 2015, quoting a construction timeframe of 26 months.
en-chairman Francisco de Lemos led the groundbreaking team, which included o cials from one of the contractors, the Hong Kong- based China International Fund (CIF). A repre- sentative of CIF said that the plant would make it possible for Angola to “completely reduce imports of major products.”
e timeframe for the completion of the new version of the project has not been revealed.
Summer announcements
In June, Sonangol announced it had signed a partners’ agreement with the United Shine consortium for the construction of a high-con- version re nery in the exclave of Cabinda. e little-known group was chosen for the job in late 2018 a er a Sonangol tender that ran through- out 2017, taking a 90% stake in the facility with Sonangol Refining (Sonaref ) retaining the balance.
e green eld facility will have a nameplate throughput capacity of 60,000 bpd and will
producegasoline,diesel,fueloilandJetA1. The 2017 tendering process focused on modernising and expanding Angola’s re ning capacity, which is currently limited to the ageing 38,000 bpd Luanda re nery near the capital. e largest part of this broader project centres on the
planned Lobito re nery in Benguela Province. Sonangol reported that 68 companies or con- sortia had expressed an interest in carrying out the construction of either Cabinda or Lobito: this was cut down to seven bidders for each
re nery.
No award has yet been made for Lobito, but
Eni signed a wide-ranging deal with Sonangol in November last year that would see the Ital- ian rm provide technical assistance to improve e ciency at the Luanda unit, as well as support- ing the development of the Lobito and Cabinda facilities.
Fellow Italian firm Maire Tecnimont announced on June 6 that its subsidiary KT – Kinetics Technology had been awarded an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract by Eni’s local arm, relating to the Luanda unit. e $200mn contract includes EPC activities relating to two re ning process units – the naphtha hydrotreater, which includes naphtha splitting, and the catalytic reformer. e scope also includes some utilities and o sites, as well as integration with the existing facility.
The project envisages increasing gasoline production from the re nery from 2,000 bpd to 8,000 bpd by mid-2021, with output being both higher quality and more environmentally friendly.
Fuel reservations
A presidential degree on July 1 sought to estab- lish “the legal regime to which crude oil re ning, importing, receiving, supplying, transporting, distributing, trading and exporting petroleum products are subject”.
is was followed soon a erwards by a gov- ernment decree, which stipulated that a 30-day fuel reserve should be set up to prevent fuel shortages from happening again.
e presidential order, which was backdated to January 1, said that the reserve would contain volumes of gasoline, diesel, Jet-A1, Jet-B and kerosene to provide security of supply. It added that an additional 20-day reserve of butane (cooking gas) must be established for the same reasons.
Angola is reliant on imports for around 80%
of its refined product demand, with the rest
being processed at the country’s only function-
ing re nery in Luanda. 
P6
w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 35 03•September•2019