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THE UGANDAN GOVERNMENT has reached an agreement with oil companies operating in its oil-rich Lake Albertine rift basin over the construction of a 30,000 bpd refinery, ending a nearly two-year deadlock that has largely been blamed for delaying the development of the country's oil fields, according to the Ugandan presidency. The refinery agreement brings the two parties closer to a final deal on the basin-wide oil development plan, where companies are expected to invest more than US$12bn to develop the country's nascent oil sector. A presidential spokeswoman said that the refinery agreement was reached following a meeting between President Yoweri Museveni and representatives of companies operating in the country - Tullow Oil, Total and CNOOC. "The parties agreed to start with the refinery size of 30,000 bpd" the spokeswoman said, adding that Museveni noted that oil production in the country was long overdue because alot of time has been wasted in negotiations. With an estimated 3.5bn barrels of untapped oil, Uganda is expected to join Nigeria, Angola and Sudan among sub-Saharan Africa's major crude producers. While the companies have been pushing for a pipeline to export crude on the open market, government has been insisting on the construction of a large refinery, with the capacity to refine as much as 180,000 bpd of crude into fuel products, initially for domestic consumption and then for regional export. Museveni has said that the two sides were close to agreeing an oil and gas extraction plan that is "optimal" for both government and oil companies. Following the meeting with oil companies, government also agreed to the construction of an export pipeline.
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Sapref awards clean fuels contract to Fluor FLUOR CORPORATION HAS been awarded a frontend engineering and design contract by South African Petroleum Refineries (Sapref) for its clean fuels project in Durban. "This award builds on our significant clean fuels expertise as well as Fluor’s ongoing site support work with Sapref in South Africa for nearly 20 years," Peter Oosterveer, president of Fluor’s energy and chemicals group, said. Sapref is a joint venture between Shell SA Refining and BP Southern Africa. It is the largest crude oil refinery in southern Africa, providing 35 per cent of South Africa’s refining capacity. The contract would be the first to be carried out in Africa under Shell’s enterprise framework agreement with Fluor. This encompasses engineering and project management services throughout Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The project would allow for a substantial upgrade of the Sapref refinery, which would improve the quality of transport fuels by reducing levels of sulphur, benzene and aromatics. This would meet enhanced legislative requirements. The agreement allowed for a potential engineering, procurement and construction management contract to be signed at a later date.
Oil Review Africa Issue Three 2013 37
Midstream & Downstream
Uganda reaches deal over refinery