Page 7 - AfrOil Week 08 2021

AfrOil COMMENTARY AfrOil

After years of under-investment, the ageing offloading the majority of its stakes in the refin-
facilities have recently typically run at less than eries, while looking at operational models to
10% of capacity, and a general update on oper- increase efficiency as well as “more scrutiny of
ations by NNPC in January 2019 disclosed that shareholders”.
full turnaround maintenance (TAM) at the Despite the positive news of the loan deal,
plants had not been carried out for 42 years. Abuja will continue to rely on fuel imports in
Four months later, the company released data the short term, with the start-up of the 650,000
showing that the refineries were operating at just bpd Dangote refinery at Lekki near Lagos hav-
5.55% of their capacity, with that figure being a ing been pushed back to early 2022.
six-month high. “The lower operational per- Meanwhile, a ray of light continues to shine
formance recorded is attributed to the ongoing from the rise of modular refining. While the
revamping of the refineries, which is expected scale is not yet comparable with the potential
to further enhance capacity utilisation when impact of the Dangote refinery, modular facil-
completed,” NNPC said. The utilisation rate has ities located near oilfields provide improved
since dropped to zero, with the four units not fuel distribution in remote areas while reducing
having operated since early 2019. reliance on infrastructure that is susceptible to
NNPC is understood to still be considering vandalism. ™

PERFORMANCE
Israel’s Leviathan gas field to be

connected to Egyptian LNG terminals

EGYPT THE governmnents of Egypt and Israel have the liquefaction facilities in Egypt, in order to
agreed in principle to build a pipeline to con- increase the gas exports to Europe through the
nect Israel’s offshore Leviathan natural gas field liquefaction facilities in Egypt.”
to LNG terminals in northern Egypt to expand This move has long been seen as the most
the development of East Mediterranean natural pragmatic solution for gas from Leviathan,
gas, Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said which holds combined 2P and 2C resources of
in a statement. just under 23 trillion cubic feet (651bn cubic
After hosting his Egyptian counterpart Tarek metres) of gas and 41mn barrels of condensate.
El Molla, Steinitz said that the parties would Production began in late 2019 and output is
proceed with the plan to build the pipeline and nearing the 34mn cubic metres per day plateau.
were working on a more binding agreement. A The consortium developing the Levia-
statement from his office said: “The two minis- than gas field is comprised of Delek Drilling
ters agreed on the construction of [an] offshore (45.33%), Chevron (39.66%, operator) and
gas pipeline from the Leviathan gas field to Ratio Oil Exploration (15%).

The planned pipeline will connect Leviathan to Egyptian LNG plants (Image: Delek)

Week 08 24•February•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P7