DMEA: Angola refinery work set to start

In DMEA this week, we look at the upcoming start of work on a new refinery in Angola and more attacks on Saudi facilities.

Work on a greenfield refinery in north-western Angola is expected to begin late next month, with equipment set to begin arriving at the location of a similar facility two months later, according to a representative of the national oil company (NOC) Sonangol.

Faustino Conde Pongue, member of the executive committee of Sonangol Refining (Sonaref), said on March 18 that work would start by the end of April on a 100,000 barrel per day (bpd) refinery at Soyo in the country’s northern Zaire Province. The plant is slated to begin operations in 2024, he said.

His comments came during a presentation to the municipal administration of Soyo, when he noted that the project would involve more than 2,000 workers. Most of these will be young people who will be hired locally, he stated.

Pongue was quoted by Angola’s state press agency ANGOP as saying that discussions were still ongoing over the lease of the site. “We are negotiating a space belonging to Sonangol for the transfer of [a] 712-square km [site] where the refinery will be built,” he said.

Meanwhile, the day the company announced its full-year results for 2021, Saudi Aramco facilities came under attack once again from missiles and drones launched by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi militia, targeting a water desalination plant at Al-Shaqeeq, a distribution station at Jazan, a power station near Aramco’s HQ in Dhahran and gas facilities at Yanbu’ and Khamis Mushait.

While president and CEO Amin Nasser said that “there were no injuries or fatalities, and no impact to the company’s supply to its customers”, the Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Co. joint venture with Sinopec reduced throughput at its 430,000 bpd refinery on the Red Sea coast but said it would compensate for the shortfall in output from its stockpiles.

Speaking out against the attacks, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) quoted a source at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as saying that Saudi Arabia would not accept any responsibility for shortages in global oil markets stemming from Houthi efforts to disrupt the Kingdom’s oil operations.