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AfrOil COMMENTARY AfrOil
WHAT:
The Quanten Consortium signed a deal with a local Angolan investment body to facilitate the devel- opment of the northern refinery.
WHY:
Progress has also been made at the greenfield Cabinda refinery, as well as a brownfield expansion project at Luanda.
WHAT NEXT:
Obstacles continue to plague the larger Lobito facility in the south of the country, but the other units will provide a major fuel supply security up- grade for the country.
“The project complies with the new private investment policy and responds to the various objectives identified in the National Develop- ment Plan 2018-2022,” it added.
AIPEX was established in 2018 to support private investment, promote exports and inter- national business partnerships and improve the competitiveness of the local economy.
The consortium, comprising the US firms Quanten, TGT and Aurum & Sharp and local technical services company ATIS Nebest-An- gola, was awarded a $3.5bn build, own and operate (BOO) contract by Angola’s Ministry of Mineral Resources and Petroleum (MIREM- PET) last year and holds a 90% stake in the refin- ery with NOC Sonangol holding the remainder.
The partners laid the foundation stone in mid-May in a 7-square km plot in the town of Matanga, later announcing that they are work- ing to a project timeline that envisages comple- tion in late 2025.
Speaking to Reuters in June, Segun Thomas, the consortium’s managing partner, said: “What they are doing now is to make sure the place is landminefreeforwhichwewillgetacertificate.”
According to Quanten’s website and various previous announcements about the project, the refinery will produce gasoline, low-sulphur die- sel and jet fuel.
The group envisages the development of a “deep conversion refinery with maximum uptime, which produces consumer-ready end products such as gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and asphalt, and is protected from adverse geopolit- ical events”. Between September and December 2020, due diligence was carried out by PwC on eight bidders, with five consortia going through to the final round.
Thomas emphasised the refinery’s ability to produce clean fuels, noting: “[The] Euro-5 standard mandates 10 parts per million for sul- phur content. We are going to be at 5 ppm.”
The consortium’s website notes that its “team members, affiliates, subcontractors and advo- cates may include (subject to negotiations and contracts)”: KBR, McDermott, Cisco, Berklee University’s Renewable and Appropriate Energy
Laboratory (RAEL), the US government’s Department of Commerce, Department of State and its Prosper Africa initiative.
Quanten’s contract for the development covers all associated connectivity, including access roads, a power plant with a capacity of 60-100MW and a marine terminal.
Cabinda’s lead
To the north, Brazilian contractor Odebrecht Engenharia e Construção (OEC) installed the distillation tower in the Cabinda exclave at a refinery of the same name.
The refinery is being constructed by UK-based Gemcorp Capital on the Malembo plan, around 30km north of the provincial cap- ital and is expected to produce gasoline, diesel, fuel oil and Jet A1.
Gemcorp holds a 90% stake in the $920mn project alongside state-owned Sonangol Refin- ing (Sonaref) with the British firm responsible for the cost of construction.
OEC is also carrying out construction work on a crude distillation unit (CDU) under a con- tract awarded by Gemcorp last year. The state- ment said: “The remaining equipment of the CDU arrives in Angola in the coming weeks, to be incorporated into the Refinery. In parallel, several civil and electromechanical works are underway indispensable to the operation of the Cabinda Refinery.”
According to plans announced in October 2020, the refinery will be built in three stages with the 30,000-bpd first stage including the CDU, a kerosene treatment facility and storage tanks that can hold up to 1.2mn barrels of oil. The second and third stages will involve dou- bling the plant’s capacity and adding, pipelines a catalytic reformer, a hydrotator and a catalytic cracking unit.
Gemcorp envisages the first phase costing around $220mn, with the remaining $700mn of the budgeted amount split across phases two and three. Cabinda is the smallest of the three refining projects that are expected to turn the country from a net importer of refined products to an exporter.
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Angolan President João Lourenço (R) met Quanten’s chairman Segun Thomas (L) in Luanda in May, following the start of construction on the refinery (Image: ANGOP)