Energy experts have disclosed that over 90 per cent of refineries in Africa require urgent upgrade, adding that the continent would require over $15.7 billion for the upgrade.
\nSpeaking at the second Refining and Specifications virtual workshop organised by the African Refiners and Distributors Association (ARDA), the experts, including a former Chief Operating Officer in charge of refineries and petrochemicals at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Anibor Kragha, also called for harmonisation of fuel standards across Africa.
\nThey cautioned that without these, achieving net-zero, Paris Agreement and other agreements targeting a cleaner environment may remain elusive.
\nKragha, who is the Executive Secretary of ARDA, disclosed that the adoption of harmonised specification would halt importation of fuels not meeting the AFRI specs into Africa and give existing refineries until 2030 to upgrade their facilities to produce the cleaner, lower sulphur AFRI-6 (10 ppm) specifications.
\nHe bemoaned the fact that there is currently uneven progress in tightening specifications across Africa, adding that African Union and ARDA are collaborating on adoption of AFRI Fuels Roadmap
\n\u201cNew process units required are to improve key fuel specifications, especially Naptha Hydrotreater (NHdT), Diesel Hydro-desulph. (DHDS), Benzene Extraction, Sulphur and Hydrogen Plants\u201d, he noted.
\nHe added that targeted financing is urgently needed for projects to upgrade refineries and infrastructure to produce and transport cleaner fuels.
\nAccording to him, Africa suffers from modest utilisation, with a few bright spots, compared to other regions.
\nKragha said: \u201cAnother key focus area is for African countries, especially those sharing common fuel supply chains, to develop an integrated policy covering both fuel quality and vehicle exhaust emissions to achieve the ultimate objective of Clean Air in our African cities.
\n\u201cWithout this integrated and coordinated policy, the objective of clean air will not be realized whether by imports or local production.\u201d
\nAlso speaking, Oil and Refining Research Analyst at Vitol, Maryro Mendez, noted that despite the withdrawal of funds from fossil, investment with sustainability plans is on the rise.
\nMendez noted that 66 carbon regimes around the world lead to a lack of carbon policy, price and timing of implementation
\nAccording to her, lack of uniform policies make it difficult for refineries to pass on the cost of carbon to its customers as carbon price shifts the cost burden of climate change, from society as a whole to the entities responsible for the emissions, providing lack of incentive for refiners to reduce emissions.
\nShe lamented that 80 per cent of refinery carbon emissions come from fuel combustion, hence fuel source and energy optimisation would present the biggest opportunity to reduce emissions.
\nAlso speaking at the event, Honeywell-UOP\u2019 Luque Guillermo bemoaned the fact that the oil and gas industry has been hit hard by the current global economic situation with rapid drops in demand, changing mix of preferred products, volatile crude prices, and difficulty safely staffing production sites.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Energy experts have disclosed that over 90 per cent of refineries in Africa require urgent upgrade, adding that the continent would require over $15.7 billion for the upgrade. Speaking at the second Refining and Specifications virtual workshop organised by the African Refiners and Distributors Association (ARDA), the experts, including a former Chief Operating Officer in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-295875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-special-edition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=295875"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":295887,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295875\/revisions\/295887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=295875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=295875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=295875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}