DMEA: NNPC deals with refinery fire

In DMEA this week, we cover a refinery fire in Nigeria and the award of a major engineering contract to expand liquefaction capabilities in Qatar.

The Nigeria National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) said this week that it had extinguished a fire that had broken out at its Port Harcourt Refining Complex (PRHC) on January 1 without any extensive damage to the facility.

Speaking to press, NNPC general manager for public affairs Garba Muhammad said that the fire had been caused by a spark while a 33,000-litre truck was discharging naphtha into one of the refinery’s tanks.

“The fire affected only the discharging truck and the pump bay,” Muhammad said. He added that safety protocols had been implemented, noting that “no other property was damaged.”

Italy’s Maire Tecnimont is currently carrying out engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) work to rehabilitate the refinery under a $1.5bn contract awarded in April 2021. This will see the facility, which has been offline since 2019, return to 90% of its 210,000 barrel per day capacity by 2023. It is comprised of a 60,000 bpd unit built in 1965, known as Area 5, and a newer unit built in 1989 which is capable of processing 150,000 bpd of crude.

The Italian company had carried out a $50mn, six-month ‘integrity check’ in 2019, with fellow Italian firm Eni contracted as technical adviser. This work included equipment inspection at the site, as well as “relevant engineering and planning activities”.

Meanwhile, QatarEnergy this week awarded an engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contract to US-based contractor McDermott International for the offshore scope of its North Field Expansion project.

The nearly $30bn project will increase Qatar’s liquefaction capacity from 79mn tonnes per year currently to 110mn tpy by 2025 or 2026 under North Field East (NFE), with the addition of North Field South (NFS) raising capacity to 126mn tpy by 2027. It is the world’s single largest LNG project.

The award follows billions of dollars of contract awards in 2021 and comes just two days after the Qatari firm assumed full control over the Qatargas Liquefied Natural Gas Company Ltd (Qatargas 1) after Doha declined to renew the joint venture (JV) concession when it expired on December 31.