REFINERY NEWS ROUNDUP: Some refineries in Africa halted on coronavirus

London — Some refineries in Africa halted production due to reduced demand on the coronavirus pandemic and soaring inventories.

Meanwhile, South Africa is planning to gradually start relaxing measures introduced to combat the spread of Covid-19.

--Chad's Ndjamena refinery in Djarmaya temporarily suspended processing activities because of overproduction.

--The Engen refinery at Durban, South Africa, shut temporarily as of March 27 "due to forecast lower demand for petroleum products during the national lockdown."

--Sasol's Natref refinery in South Africa suspended operations as of Thursday April 9 until further notice as the lockdown in South Africa which started on March 27 "has caused an unprecedented decline in fuel demand." Sasol also said that due to the steep decline in fuels demand, it will also reduce daily production rates by 25% at its synthetic fuels facility, known as Secunda Synfuels Operations.

--South Africa's largest refinery, Sapref, said that a CDU at the plant is halted for maintenance. According to traders, the works are set to last up to four weeks. The refinery said previously it would adjust its production rates according to market demand.

--However, the refinery in Pointe Noire, Republic of Congo, has been operating at over 80% of its capacity in the past few weeks, a source close to the matter said. "The refinery is running quite well. The flow rate is around 22,000-26,000 b/d," the source said. "Some of the recent limitations were related to the quantity of crude we receive from the government." The refinery runs on Congolese crudes such as Djeno, N'Kossa and Yombo.

Meanwhile, Egyptian refiners Middle East Oil Refinery and Egyptian General Petroleum Corp. have emerged again in the spot market, flooding the oversupplied Persian Gulf with more gasoline cargoes even as demand slumped further on tightened travel measures, market sources said. In addition to gasoline, 60,000 mt of 0.1% sulfur gasoil -- used mainly as a road fuel and normally imported into the country -- was also offered in the spot market. Egypt's transition from an importer to an exporter of gasoline comes as more severe measures have been taken to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Exacerbating matters for Egyptian refiners, Europe is facing a glut of motor fuel, and with Egyptian barrels often not meeting European specifications and the possibility of high sulfur, homes for the fuel are limited in the west, with storage east a possibility.

NEW AND ONGOING MAINTENANCE

UPGRADES

LAUNCHES

Near term and future maintenance

New and revised entries

--Sapref, South Africa's largest refinery, said that a CDU at the plant is halted for maintenance. According to traders, the works are set to last up to four weeks.

--Nigeria is racing to upgrade its four ailing refineries after the coronavirus pandemic is likely to delay repair works, officials at Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. said. NNPC was hoping to raise operating capacity at the facilities to their full capacity of 445,000 b/d by 2022 and end gasoline imports by then but this looks very tricky now. Nigeria's refineries, which include the northern Kaduna refinery, Warri refinery and the two plants located in Port Harcourt, have all been shut, with repairs initially planned to start in the second quarter. NNPC, which manages the refineries, first shut the two refineries in Port Harcourt in March 2019 after it secured the service of Italy's Maire Tecnimont to handle the overhaul of the facilities, with oil major Eni appointed as technical adviser. The other two refineries - the 125,000b/d Warri refinery and 110,000b/d Kaduna refinery - were shut in December 2019.

--South Africa's Cape Town refinery, known as Caltex, which has been undergoing maintenance since February, is due to restart shortly, as planned, according to market sources. In September 2018, Astron Energy acquired a majority stake in the former Chevron refinery.

Existing entries

--Algeria's Skikda is planning maintenance in May, according to trading sources.

--The refinery in Pointe Noire, Republic of Congo, will go into turnaround in 2021 but dates have not been finalized.

--Sudan's Khartoum refinery is set to carry out works from around mid-September, CITAC Africa reported. The works will last around 75 days.

--Zambia's Indeni refinery was offline and undergoing a one-month maintenance program, a spokesman said in late March. "The current turnaround started on Friday March 20 and is expected to last until April 23," the spokesman told S&P Global Platts. "During this period, maintenance works will be undertaken, as well as regeneration of the Reformer catalyst." The last turnaround program was in October/November 2018. "The reason for the prolonged run was that during the turnaround of 2018 we replaced the reformer reactors with bigger ones," the spokesman said. "The new reactors can hold a larger volume of catalyst, facilitating a longer run as well as operations at higher temperatures."

--Senegal's sole refinery located in Dakar is having some production problems, according to market sources. Last year it stopped processing due to lack of crude. The Dakar refinery has plans to increase its capacity to 1.5 million mt a year.

--Cameroon's Limbe refinery, which suffered from a fire at the end of May 2019, remains offline, according to sources. Local media reported the restart is not expected until 2021. During a Russia-Africa summit officials said that Russian companies could get involved in the reconstruction of the plant.

--South Africa's Cape Town refinery, known as Caltex, is currently undergoing maintenance which will last until mid-April, according to market sources. In September 2018, Astron Energy acquired a majority stake in the former Chevron refinery.

--Libya's Zawiya oil refinery has been forced to shut as domestic oil output has plunged due to a blockade which began on January 18, state-owned National Oil Corp. said. Both CDUs, each with 60,000 b/d capacity, have been affected. In late December, the refinery was the target of an air strike but the refinery has been operating at around 60,000 b/d over the past six months, with only one of its crude distillation units operating.

--Libya's Ras Lanuf remains offline without any timeline for its restart. The refinery was shut in 2013.

--Because of upgrades, Zambia's Indeni is unlikely to require extensive maintenance until 2022, although minor outages to facilitate routine servicing of equipment may be required. The refinery last underwent maintenance in October 2018. The government began the process of selling the refinery in late 2017. Privately owned Sahara Group said it is hoping to buy a 70% stake in the state-owned refinery.

Upgrades

New and revised entries

--Nigeria is racing to upgrade its four ailing refineries after the coronavirus pandemic is likely to delay repair works, officials at Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. said. NNPC was hoping to raise operating capacity at the facilities to their full capacity of 445,000 b/d by 2022 and end gasoline imports by then but this looks very tricky now. Nigeria's refineries, which include the northern Kaduna refinery, Warri refinery and the two plants located in Port Harcourt, have all been shut, with repairs initially planned to start in the second quarter. NNPC, which manages the refineries, first shut the two refineries in Port Harcourt in March 2019 after it secured the service of Italy's Maire Tecnimont to handle the overhaul of the facilities, with oil major Eni appointed as technical adviser. The other two refineries - the 125,000b/d Warri refinery and 110,000b/d Kaduna refinery - were shut in December 2019.

Existing entries

--The refinery in Pointe Noire, Republic of Congo, has delayed its upgrade program until 2022 due to a lack of funds, which had included plans to build a fluid catalytic cracker. The objective behind the expansion was to reduce its current production of fuel oil from 40% and to meet cleaner fuels standards. --The Republic of Congo's refinery in Pointe Noire is planning to build a fluid catalytic cracker before 2022.

--The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) approved a $50 million loan for an upgrade of Egypt's Suez refinery aimed at introducing cleaner fuel and reducing CO2 emissions. It was the second loan after a $200 million loan by the EBRD which was aimed to "increase the flexibility of the plant's crude intake and allow for the production of higher quality fuels and lower sulfur fuels."

--Italy's Kinetics Technology has been awarded a contract to build a fluid catalytic cracker at Angola's sole oil refinery in Luanda. The unit would take around two and half years to complete. Sonangol is working with Eni for the refurbishment of the Luanda plant. The construction of the fluid catalytic cracker at the Luanda refinery will enable it to produce 1,200 mt/day of gasoline, up from current output of 380 mt/day. The unit is expected to come online mid-2021.

--The expansion program at Egypt's state-owned Middle East Oil Refinery (Midor) near Alexandria, is on track for 2022, which will push capacity to 160,000 b/d. Once the revamp is complete, the refinery will produce Euro 5 specification refined products. EGPC is in the midst of expanding other refineries, including the upgrade of Assiut by the Nile in Middle Egypt, which was expected to be complete by April 2020. The upgrade at Assiut includes the installation of 880,000 mt/year continuous catalytic reforming and isomerization complex, a 400,000 mt/year vapor recovery unit and 2.3 million mt/year hydrocracker.

--Cote d'Ivoire's SIR has secured a Eur577 million ($657 million) debt financing deal from Africa Finance Corporation, or AFC, which will help fund the upgrade of the refinery.

--Senegal's Dakar refinery is planning to increase capacity to 1.5 million mt/year.

Launches

Existing entries

--Angola's oil ministry has postponed the announcement of the winner of the Soyo refinery tender due to the coronavirus outbreak. The winner of the tender for building the refinery will be announced after the coronavirus outbreak is controlled, according to local media reports. The company to build the new Soyo refinery was due to be announced in March. Out of 31 interested companies, 15 have submitted bids in a tender for the construction of Soyo, the country's ANGOP news agency reported previously. Nine of the bids have been validated. The tender was launched in October. The refinery is expected to be completed in about three to four years. The selected company or joint venture will finance the construction of the plant on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis. The new plant, along with ones under consideration in Lobito in Benguela province and in Cabinda, is part of the government's plan to transform its downstream sector. This also involves refurbishing the refinery in Luanda.

--Safinat, the main investor and implementer of the Bentiu refinery project in South Sudan, said that the refinery has not started yet. Construction of the refinery in the Unity oil field started in August 2013 and precommissioning and production began in 2014, although it was subsequently damaged during military action. Restoration works on the site started in December 2018 but it was dependent on assistance from the government to minimize risks. South Sudan officials had previously said they expected the refinery to be operational in 2019.

--Nigeria's Dangote, set to be Africa's biggest refinery at 650,000 b/d plant, has completed 75% of its construction and remained on track to start processing crude by early 2021, company officials said. The plant, being built by Nigerian conglomerate Dangote Group, will use Nigerian crude. Officials said that the arrival of key components of the refinery late last year, after initial delays, had bolstered confidence that construction will be complete by end-2020. "Construction work on the refinery has hit 75% completion. The port terminal is ready and we have begun installation of the key fluid catalytic cracking unit," an official said. The fluid catalytic cracker, built by Sinopec, was delivered to the refinery last December, the official said. Work on the refinery, initially billed to come on stream in 2019, had been delayed first by the scarcity of foreign exchange in Nigeria, where oil revenues fell between 2015 and 2017 on low oil prices and limited production. Construction of the Dangote refinery began in 2013.

--Completion of the Albertine Graben refinery in Uganda is on schedule for 2023, Robert Kasande, the permanent secretary at the energy ministry, said. Uganda officials said last year that completion had been pushed back to 2024, following delays in reaching agreement on prerequisites for the project's final investment decision. However, the timeline has been brought forwards after preliminary front-end engineering design studies indicated that the cost for building the plant has come down from $4 billion to $3.5 billion. One of the conditions for investors to reach a FID -- a requirement for the government to start work on product pipelines -- has also been met. The government has secured the corridor for associated infrastructure, such as a products pipeline that will run 213 km to the Buroba storage terminals. Construction of a multi-product pipeline will start in the second half of 2020, the energy ministry said in a report. The FID, which was initially planned for 2019, is now due to be finalized in the second quarter of 2020, after the development consortium concludes its FEED study, currently expected for June.

--Angola's state-owned Sonangol said the first phase of its Cabinda refinery project will be completed by 2021, starting with a capacity of 30,000 b/d. An additional 30,000 b/d capacity will be added in the second phase. Thereafter the plant will focus on improving the specifications of the refined products it yields. Sonangol signed a contract with Gemcorp Capital for the construction of a 60,000 b/d refinery in Cabinda province. In December, Sonangol terminated a contract with the United Shine consortium for the construction of this refinery. Sonangol said the contract was canceled as "the consortium has not demonstrated the ability to prepare or carry out essential activities within the agreed period."

--Sonatrach signed January 8 with the Spanish and Korean consortium Technicas Reunidas-Samsung Engineering the contract to build the new Hassi Messaoud refinery (100,000 b/d). The consortium that will build the refinery through this $ 3.7 billion contract is expected to deliver the refinery in the first half of 2024. The new refinery should enter into service in the first half of 2024. The contract includes the full performance of the refinery, including all processing and environmental units, as well as the necessary auxiliary services according to Sonatrach. The new refinery will be located at Haoud El Hamra in the Hassi Messaoud region, where the largest Algerian oil deposit is located (400,000 b/d). The petroleum products from the refinery will be adapted to European environmental standards (Euro V). Algeria has revised downwards its plans for rapid expansion of its downstream sector, abandoning its plans to build five new refineries of 5 million mt/yr and continuing with only two new projects, in Hassi Messaoud and at Tiaret.

--Equatorial Guinea plans to start construction on two modular refineries, each with a capacity of at least 20,000 b/d, by the end of 2020, the country's energy minister said. The facilities will allow the country, which currently has no oil refineries, to meet its own refined product needs and export fuels to its neighbors, Gabriel Obiang Lima told reporters. Obiang said one of the refineries will be built at the Punta Europa complex located on Bioko Island, which is home to the bulk of its gas resources. Obiang said crude for this plant will be supplied from its Zafiro and Aseng fields and it will focus on producing gasoline, gasoil, kerosene and jet fuel, he said at the time. He also said the second modular refinery project will be located on the mainland, next to its regasification plant at Cogo, and will also run local crudes.

--Nigeria hopes to have its first modular oil refinery, built in the restive Niger Delta region, come on stream in May 2020, the oil ministry said. Modular refineries are crude oil processing facilities with capacities of up to 30,000 b/d and these are being built as part of plans to curb oil theft and promote peace in the country's main oil producing region. According to the ministry, the Waltersmith Modular Refinery in Ohaji/Egbema, in southern Imo state, will consume 5,000 b/d of crude in the first phase, producing gasoline and diesel. The plant's production capacity will be subsequently increased to 25,000 b/d of crude and condensate and will produce in addition LPG, kerosene and aviation fuel.

--State-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. said it hoped to take a final investment decision for its condensate refinery project by July 2020. NNPC signed the front-end engineering design for the construction of the plant -- which will be located in the Niger Delta -- with engineering firm KBR. NNPC is partnered in the project by indigenous oil producer Seplat Petroleum. NNPC first announced in August 2018 plans to build a condensate refinery with capacity to refine 200,000 b/d of the condensate oil produced by the country.

--Africa Finance Corporation has signed an agreement with Brahms Oil Refineries Ltd to co-develop a refinery and storage terminal in the West African country. The deal means AFC will work on the development and subsequent financing of a petroleum storage and associated refinery project in Kamsar, Guinea. This will include a 12,000 b/d modular refinery, a 76,000 cu m crude oil storage terminal, a 114,200 cu m storage terminal for refined products, and ancillary transportation infrastructure. Guinea currently has no refineries and is entirely dependent on imports from neighboring Ivory Coast and Senegal for its fuel needs.

--Russian state development bank VEB has signed investment cooperation deals with African organizations including on financing a refinery in Morocco. The deals were signed during a Russia-Africa Summit. VEB said the memorandum on the oil refinery in Morocco was signed with the Russian Export Group and Morocco's MYA Energy, part of the Marita Group. The refinery has a planned capacity of up to 5 million mt/year. Morocco's sole refiner Samir was forced to halt processing at the Mohammedia plant in 2015 after crude oil deliveries were delayed due to financial problems. Since then attempts to resume operations or find an investor have been unsuccessful.

--Sonaref's Joaquim de Sousa Fernandes, chairman of the executive council, said that the Lobito refinery in Angola is aimed for completion in 2025. The construction of the Lobito refinery has been frozen due to high costs. Sonangol has been under pressure to build a new refinery as it heavily depends on imports for its fuel requirements, but it canceled the Lobito project in 2016. It has indicated plans for building Lobito have been revived, for a 200,000 b/d plant.

--A consortium of Russian investors is planning a $4 billion project for a new refinery in Northern Zambia at the site of the country's aging state-owned Indeni plant.

--Russian state-owned exploration company Rosgeologia is considering building the Red Sea Coast refinery in Port Sudan, which would supply landlocked countries in Africa. Sudan had begun discussions to develop a 200,000 b/d refinery on its Red Sea coast. The project's timeline has not yet been disclosed. The only refinery currently operating in the country is the Khartoum, after the Port Sudan refinery closed in 2013 and was decommissioned.

--Nigeria has reached an agreement with neighbor Niger to build an oil refinery in a border town between Niger and Katsina state in northern Nigeria.

--Kenya is hoping to decide soon on the location for a new refinery in either Lamu or Mombasa.

--Ghana's ministry of energy is in the process of submitting a proposal to build a new refinery in Tema. It will replace the 45,000 b/d Tema Oil Refinery. Separately, the government had set its sights on building a 150,000 b/d refinery in Takoradi.