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DMEA COMMENTARY DMEA
Quanten signs Soyo deal amid Angolan refining surge
A deal has been signed for the finance required to develop the 100,000-bpd Soyo refinery while significant progress is being made at two of three other refining projects.
AFRICA
WHAT:
The Quanten Consortium signed a deal with a local Angolan investment body to facilitate the development 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 upgrade for the country.
THE US-based Quanten Consortium signed a deal this week with the Angola Private Invest- ment and Export Promotion Agency (AIPEX) for the development of a greenfield refinery at Soyo in the northern Zaire province.
This announcement comes as Angola works to build three refineries with a combined capac- ity of 360,000 barrels per day (bpd) and the 60,000-bpd Cabinda plant leading the way after a distillation tower was installed last month.
Soyo signing
According to a note shown to local media outlet Jornal de Angola, “the referred project is exter- nal (United States), and is budgeted at $3.5bn, providing for the creation of 900 direct jobs, of which 77% (700) are for nationals.”
While it was not clear from the statement, local Portuguese-language reporting of the story suggests that AIPEX will stump up funding for the 100,000-barrel per day (bpd) unit.
“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 American 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 7sq-km plot in the town of Matanga, later announcing that they are working to a project timeline that envisages completion 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
diesel 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 sulphur con- tent, 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 CDUarrivesinAngolainthecomingweeks,to be incorporated into the Refinery. In parallel, several civil and electromechanical works are underway indispensable to the operation of the
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 32 11•August•2022