By Obas Esiedesa, Abuja

The African Refiners and Distributors Association (ARDA) has pointed out that flexible and efficient refineries were needed on the continent to meet the demand for clean energy for transportation and cooking in the coming years.

Executive Secretary of ARDA, Anibor Kragha, noted that with growing energy demand and rapidly rising population over next two decades, delivering refineries of the future which produce cleaner fuels in the near-term while also focusing on higher value petrochemicals, was vital.

Kragha, according to a statement by the association, stated this in a presentation at the Africa Energy Futures Forum held recently during the 23rd World Petroleum Congress in Houston, Texas.

He stated that producing clean fuel was the continent’s best option to lowering the environmental footprint of the refineries and averting serious potential public health issues.

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He explained that it has now become imperative for African countries to adopt a unique Energy Transition Plan that promotes cleaner transport and cooking fuels in the near-term while taking on proven, cost-effective renewable energy solutions in the mid-to-longer term.

Kragha also stated that the path to delivering this African Energy Transition Plan will require an accompanying finance plan which will promote investments in world-class, integrated refinery and petrochemicals complexes as well as critical LPG storage and distribution infrastructure.  

With only 20 countries in Africa have refining operations, with their capacity utilization down to 55 percent on average, Kragha stated that existing refineries will need to be upgraded to produce AFRI-6 (10 ppm sulphur) fuels in line with ARDA AFRI Fuels Roadmap, while new refineries, like the Dangote Refinery in Nigeria and the ERC Refinery in Mostorod, Egypt, will be designed to produce these cleaner fuels. 

Kragha also lamented the current situation whereby only six (6) African nations have LPG storage capacity above 50,000 metric tons (MTs) leading to uneconomic cargoes and increased LPG landed costs. This overall situation has resulted in Africa petroleum products shortfall (demand vs. refinery output) growing significantly over the years which poses significant concerns for Africa’s energy security as the continent remains heavily reliant on imports.

He stated that significant investments were required in integrated refining and petrochemicals plants to meet growing demand and reduce imports as well as in large-scale LPG infrastructure to effectively promote replacement of biomass with LPG as clean cooking alternative across Africa. 

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