REFINERY NEWS ROUNDUP: Upgrades, new plants in focus in Africa

Refinery upgrades in Africa have been reporting progress with the recent restart of Nigeria's Warri, following the restart of the Old Port Harcourt and ahead of the anticipated restart of Kaduna and New Port Harcourt.

Projects for new plants have also been in the focus on the continent, including Nigeria, Niger and South Sudan, while Nigeria's 650,000 b/d Dangote is commissioning its propylene unit.

Dangote refinery is preparing to begin polypropylene production in early February, according to a company official. Speaking to S&P Global Commodity Insights on Jan. 9, an executive at the refinery said that the site's propylene unit was being commissioned, anticipating that the first of its secondary polypropylene units will start operating by early February.

Separately, Dangote will import its first African crude oil in January. The refinery had initially planned to source the bulk of its crude from state oil company NNPC, which agreed to supply it with 300,000 b/d of crude oil at discounted rates to secure a 20% stake in the project.

However, NNPC only delivered around a third of expected volumes in the first six months of the plant's operations, according to S&P Global Commodities at Sea data, prompting it to consider new feedstock options after the state oil company was forced to reduce its equity to 7.2% in July. That month, refinery CEO Aliko Dangote said talks were underway with Angola, Senegal and Libya over crude purchases, anticipating the first shipment could take place in October.

New and ongoing maintenance

New and revised entries

** Fuel production at Libya's Zawiya oil refinery has not been affected by clashes between armed groups that set storage tanks on fire, sources told S&P Global Commodity Insights Dec. 17. The Libyan National Oil Company declared force majeure Dec. 15 noting that storage tanks had "sustained significant damage." It also added that the fire and gas leaks had been brought under control.

** South Africa's Natref refinery has been safely shut down after a fire that caused damage to certain infrastructure around the CDU, the company said Jan. 13. The fire, which occurred Jan. 4, was extinguished without any injuries. "It is anticipated that the fire will negatively impact the production and supply of jet fuel, ULP93 and diesel from the refinery," it said, adding the incident was expected to affect jet fuel supply to Tambo International Airport. "An assessment of damages is underway and will inform the repair schedule and subsequent start-up of the refinery," it said.

** Cameroon's government continues with its project of reconstructing Sonara's Limbe refinery, which has been offline since a fire on May 31, 2019, according to local media report. The government, with the support of the IMF, is also examining the feasibility of building a hydrocracker. The reconstruction project is at its third stage, Cameroon-eco reported December 2024, which consists of technical and economic evaluation and financing the integration of a hydrocracker in the future refinery. The project includes a complete overhaul of the infrastructure and refining capacity. The reconstruction of the refinery was authorized by the country's president in 2022. Sonara's Limbe refinery has been entirely offline since May 2019, when it suffered a major fire. Shortly before the explosion, it had increased its capacity to 72,000 b/d from 45,000 b/d through an upgrade program, which involved the construction of a vacuum distillation unit, a catalytic reformer and a power plant as part of its phase 1 upgrade.

Existing entries

** South Africa is looking at bringing the Sapref refinery on stream, Godfrey Moagi, CEO of the country's newly formed national oil company SANPC, said at the African Energy Week in Cape Town in November. The refinery, once South Africa's largest, stopped processing in early 2022 as its owners, Shell and BP, were considering the future of the plant, including a potential sale. In May 2024, Shell and BP sold the plant to the government's Central Energy Fund, or CEF, stirring speculation over whether the government would be willing to fund a revival of the refinery. The newly formed SANPC, which is considering plans to revive the closed plant, will initially operate as a subsidiary of the CEF until a government bill, formally establishing the company, goes through the parliament. Speaking on the sidelines of the event, a representative for the CEF said that a final investment decision on the refinery was expected by the end of this year.

** Ghana's Tema refinery, which had been operating on an on-and-off basis, is now operating, but below its capacity, Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, CEO of Ghana's National Petroleum Authority, said in November. The plant has faced several issues over the past few years, experiencing intermittent outages at its crude distillation unit and fluid catalytic cracker. The refinery was shut in January 2017 after an explosion at a furnace attached to the CDU. The CDU was installed the month before and had only just begun processing Ghana's TEN Blend crude grade.

** Sudan's Khartoum refinery was "completely destroyed" after the Sudanese army bombed the idled plant late May 21, according to Sudan's Rapid Support Forces militia. Seized by the Rapid Support Forces in April 2023, Khartoum refinery fully halted processing at the end of July 2023. Since the beginning of the conflict between forces loyal to warring generals in the East African country, the militia was using the refinery to supply its troops with fuel.

** Libya's Ras Lanuf refinery restarted its ethylene plant, but the refinery remained offline, according to market sources. No time frame was available for the refinery's restart. Initial stages of operation were started May 12 when naphtha was introduced into furnaces and the cracked gas compressor system started, leading to the production phase. The refinery had been closed since 2013 due to an arbitration dispute, which NOC won in March 2021 against the Libyan Emirates Oil. At the time, it was thought the award might lead to the refinery reopening.

** The reopening of Zambia's Indeni refinery remains uncertain following a government decision to compensate more than 300 workers and maintain the ageing refinery under care and maintenance while an appropriate investor is sought, energy minister Peter Kapala said. The decision was seen to be disappointing by union chief Mutukelwa Lubita since workers expected the government to revive the plant rather than close it indefinitely. The refinery's operations were suspended in late December 2020 for annual maintenance and never reopened for financial and technical reasons. At the end of 2021, the plant was put under care and maintenance. According to Kapala, Indeni was no longer profitable and fuel pump prices were high due to the refinery's inefficiency. Lubita said the unions and government should work together to "fix" the challenges, save jobs and prevent fuel supply issues. The government has started an audit and will come up with the real value of the site while a long-term solution for the refinery is sought, Kapala said.

** South Africa's Engen said it would proceed with the conversion of its Durban refinery into a terminal. The refinery has been shut since a fire and explosion in December 2020. The refinery-terminal conversion was expected to be commissioned in the third quarter of 2023.

Upgrades

New and revised entries

** Algeria's Sonatrach has called a tender for the construction of a heavy naphtha treatment unit at its Arzew refinery. The tender, which closes in late January, will be awarded for the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning of a naphtha hydrotreater/reformer-platformer aimed at significantly improving the refinery's performance and allowing it to produce gasoline with a higher octane number, according to a report in Ebourse.dz. The project will be developed in two stages, and the new naphtha reforming unit will have a capacity of 1.2 million mt/year. Separately, Sonatrach is building an MTBE unit at the Arzew industrial area, which will produce 200,000 mt/year of MTBE by treating 75,000 mt/year of methanol and 150,000 mt/year of butane, S&P Global Commodity Insights reported. The plant is under construction, according to local media.

** Nigeria's Old Port Harcourt refinery, which was recently restarted after four years of closure for an upgrade, has ramped up operations and currently operates at about 80% of its nameplate 60,000 b/d refining capacity, the plant owner Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd. said Dec. 23, 2024. "The (Old) Port Harcourt refinery is fully operational. Production has increased to around 80% of its capacity now," Olufemi Soneye, spokesperson for state oil firm NNPC, told S&P Global Commodity Insights. The plant resumed operations in November and began processing crude at 60% of its nameplate capacity. Its restart following an upgrade faced several setbacks, after being initially set for December 2023 and then delayed multiple times throughout 2024.

** Nigeria's Warri refinery in the oil-producing Niger Delta region has restarted after a major upgrade, the plant owners said Dec. 30, 2024. Mele Kyari, the head of the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Company told reporters the Warri refinery, shut since late 2020 for major overhaul, has commenced operation in stages and was producing diesel, kerosene and naphtha. The production of gasoline at the plant will commence later, Kyari said adding that "the Warri refinery is currently running, although it is not 100% complete." "This plant has three stages of (repairs). We have started stage one, which is called Area 1, able to produce AGO (diesel), kerosene, naphtha and others. These are brands of high-quality products required by the country," Kyari said, adding, "the other area that will produce PMS (gasoline) will also come alive."

Separately, Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu said that with the 125,000 b/d Warri refinery now operating at 60% capacity, his administration's comprehensive plan to ensure energy efficiency and security was on course.

The NNPC had previously said that the Warri refinery would be mechanically ready by the end of the first quarter of 2024. The repairs to the plant were handled by a consortium of Italian engineering companies Saipem SPA and Saipem Contracting Ltd. and were to be completed in three phases spread over a total 77-month period, the NNPC has said.

** Nigeria's government said in December 2024 the repair works on the New Port Harcourt refinery would be completed and that the 150,000 b/d plant would soon become operational.

The Kaduna upgrade works are being carried out by South Korean engineering giant Daewoo. The Kaduna refinery would initially be refining 60,000 b/d of crude when it resumes operations, which was expected at the end of 2024.

Existing entries