Name and Location
Project Mthombo, Coega industrial development zone (IDZ), Eastern Cape, South Africa.
Client
PetroSA.
Project Description
South Africa's State-owned oil company PetroSA plans to build a 360 000 bl/d crude oil refinery, about 10 km from the Port of Ngqura, at Coega, near Port Elizabeth, in the Eastern Cape, to meet the growing demand for fuel in the country.
The facility is designed to refine crude oil from the Atlantic Ocean, known as heavy sour, as opposed to the light sweet crude oil from the Middle East, which South Africa’s existing refineries are designed to turn into petroleum products.
Once completed, the refinery will be the biggest in Africa and will reduce South Africa’s reliance on oil imports by supplementing the country’s growing diesel and petrol shortfall with cleaner fuels.
An electricity power plant is also planned as part of the project. It is envisaged that the power station will generate about 800 MW of electricity, of which 200 MW will be used for the refinery. The excess power will be fed back into the national grid.
Value
The project cost is estimated at $11-billion.
Duration
Commissioning is scheduled for 2018/20.
Latest Developments
In May 2012, PetroSA signed a joint study agreement with Sinopec.
The concept studies are expected to lead to a selection of a refinery configuration and the development of a business case. This will be followed by feasibility studies, to be concluded by the end of 2013, which will prepare Project Mthombo for front-end engineering design (Feed) approval by the PetroSA board and government and include a proposal on the equity stake that Sinopec will take in the refinery.
No indication has been given as to how the refined product will be transported to Gauteng where it is needed. However, the possibility of shipping the refined product from the IDZ to Durban has been mooted.
Key Contracts and Suppliers
KBC Advanced Technologies (project technical/commercial adviser); HSBC (project finance advisory service provider); KBR (feasibility and Feed study services); Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs (ENS) consortium (legal advisers); the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, or CSIR, (environmental-impact assessment); Fairbrother Geotechnical Engineering (geotechnical investigation) and Sinopec Engineering (review, selection and development of a business case).
On Budget and on Time?
Too early to state.
Contact Details for Project Information
CSIR, tel +27 12 841 2911, fax +27 12 349 1153 or email callcentre@csir.co.za.
ENS, tel +27 21 410 2500, fax +27 21 410 2555 or email info@ens.co.za.
Fairbrother Geotechnical Engineering, tel +27 21 715 5470 or fax +27 21 715 6369.
HSBC, tel +27 21 405 6500 or fax +27 21 424 8745.
KBR investor relations director Rob Kukla, tel +1 713 753 5082, fax +1 713 753 5353 or email investors@kbr.com.
PetroSA spokesperson Thabo Mabaso, tel +27 21 929 3000, fax +27 21 929 9294 or email thabo.mabaso@petrosa.co.za; or midstream new ventures VP Joern Falbe, tel +27 21 929 3600.
Sinopec, tel +86 10 6916 6396, fax +86 10 6916 6645 or email guxb@sinopec.com.