Africa and Asia: Refining and petrochemical updates

Africa

It has been reported that Libya’s oil output has dropped further after the closure of the Marsa El Hariga port. The port closed after only reopening in May. However, whilst the facility was open, exports only averaged 167 000 bpd.

Four international companies have presented their proposals to the Ugandan government for construction of the country’s first oil refinery. The bidding process was officially opened in March 2014 for the plant which will reside in Busreka sub county in the Hoima district. The bids have come from China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau, Marubeni Corporation of Japan, Global Resources of Russia and SK Group of South Korea. Despite being shortlisted, UAE’s Petrofac and Switzerland’s Vitol failed to submit bids.

Metso has reportedly expressed interest in helping Namibia set up an oil refinery. This follows recent proposed agreements for Nigeria and Namibia to build a joint venture refinery to help maximise cooperation between their energy sectors. The proposed refinery will be built in Walvis Bay, Namibia and cost US$ 10 billion to construct. It is expected to be 100% privately financed.

Asia

A fire has damaged a petrochemical plant in eastern Thailand. The fire caused smoke to cloud the atmosphere for miles and forced residents to leave their homes. No one was injured in the fire in Rayong province and was reportedly under control in under 30 mins. The plant is owned by IRPC Public Co. Ltd. and the fire is thought to have started with a gas leak from pipes that had over heated and cracked.

The revamp of the PetroChina Guangxi Petrochemical facility is once again delayed. The work is meant to allow the facility to process sour crude and is taking months longer than expected. The completion of revamp work at the 200 000 bpd facility is now not expected to end until August. The sour crude will be imported from Saudi Arabia once the work is complete. Also, earlier this year, PetroChina reportedly switched importing Saudi oil to Russian oil for one of its refineries. This caused crude oil imports from Saudi to China for the first quarter of this year to fall by 13%.

Edited from various sources by Claira Lloyd

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/10062014/africa_asia_refining_petchem_news/