The Future of refining in West Africa is in future

There are eight refineries in West Africa but having them all at functional capacity have been a difficult task as they are often beset by challenges which has seen the region account for the biggest global importation of refined petroleum products.

 

Nigeria has four refineries, two in Port Harcourt, and one in Warri and another in Kaduna but according to NNPC’s monthly financial and operations report, they are currently operating at 5.55 percent of their combined nameplate capacity of 445,000 barrels per day.

Senegal’s sole refinery with  located in Dakar, has halted production in late May due to a lack of crude but has since reportedly restarted but not at full capacity. The refinery is unable to process any crude despite having a crude cargo at the port of Dakar, sources added. Senegalese media reported the Suezmax tanker Max Jacob has been waiting to discharge its 950,917-barrel crude cargo since May 5.

 

Cameroon’s 72,000 bpd remains offline after the refinery suffered serious damage when an explosion occurred at some of its units at the end of May according to industry sources.

 

Ghana’s sole refinery at Tema continues to run at about half its nameplate capacity with a return to the full 45,000 bpd rate expected later this year according to a refinery official

Cote d’Ivoire SIR near Abidjan has secured a Eur577 million debt financing deal from Africa Finance Corporation which will help fund the much needed upgrade of refinery

 

Future aspirations

However, in a note of hope, China and Nigeria are expected to be the major contributors to the global refinery crude distillation unit (CDU) industry capacity growth from new-build and expansion projects between 2019 and 2023, a new study from GlobalData, a leading analytics firm.

 

In the company’s report – Global Refinery Crude Distillation Units (CDU) Outlook to 2023: Capacity and Capital Expenditure Forecasts with Details of All Operating and Planned Crude Distillation Units – states that around 21,579 thousand barrels of oil per day (mbd), of refinery CDU capacity, is expected to be added globally by 2023, taking the total global refinery crude distillation unit capacity to around 121,454mbd in 2023.

 

China will emerge the global leader in terms of refinery CDU capacity additions during the outlook period with 4,000mbd. The country also has the third highest new-build, and expansion capex globally, to be spent the over the next four years.

“Growing demand from the domestic transportation sector and industrial growth is driving China’s primary distillation capacity additions. Crude distillation capacity expansion is also powering China’s crude imports, and will further help the country to increase exports of petroleum products,” said Sumit Kumar Chaudhuri, oil and gas analyst at GlobalData.

 

GlobalData identifies Nigeria as the second largest country in terms of refinery CDU capacity additions. The country will add around 2,039mbd of CDU capacity by 2023. With 1,470mbd of CDU capacity, Iraq will be the third largest country globally for refinery CDU capacity additions.

 

In terms of capacity, among the upcoming refinery CDUs, Dayushan Island refinery in China, the Dangote Refinery in Nigeria and Al-Zour refinery in Kuwait will lead with 800mbd, 650mbd and 615mbd, respectively, by 2023.