Early June downstream news: Africa, Asia and the Middle East

Africa

Kenya

Following the decision by the Kenyan government to transform the Mombasa refinery into a receipt terminal, close to 300 employees are facing redundancy; as a storage facility the refinery will require far fewer staff and most would be struck off.

However, Essar Energy, a 50:50 owner of the Kenya Petroleum Refinery Limited (KPRL) with the government, has insisted that it is premature to talk about closure, as there are still other options available.

Asia

China

China is to give Costa Rica a US$ 900 million line of credit to finance the expansion and remodeling of an oil refinery.

During an official visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping, the two countries signed 9 cooperation agreements totaling US$ 1.5 billion. These loans will also provide resources for improving Costa Rican roads and public transit fleets.

Middle East

Iran

Iranian officials have announced that oil produced in Sarvestan and Saadatabad oilfields are to be used as feedstock by the Shiraz oil refinery.

Managing Director of Shiraz Oil Refinery, Abdolrahim Shamsaddini, has suggested that Sarvestan and Saadatabad oil has supplanted that supplied from the Gachsaran oilfield due to lower cost.

Iraq

Oil Projects Company – SCOP has awarded a contract to Technip for project management consultancy (PMC) services for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) phase of the Karbala refinery in Iraq. This award follows the front end engineering design executed by Technip in 2010.

The scope of the work will cover two phases: the issue of enquiries for the EPC contract, bids clarification, evaluation and contracts finalisation with the EPC contractors; and overall management of the EPC contract execution.

Edited from various sources by Emma McAleavey.

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/05062013/early_june_downstream_news_africa_asia_and_the_middleeast_416/