According to a publication in the Business Monitor Online of May 12th, 2010:
Noor Reports Progress On Tanzanian Refinery And Pipeline Project
The president of multinational consortium Noor Oil And Industrial Technology (NOIT) has made a series of announcements suggesting that a project to construct a 200,000 barrel per day (b/d) oil refinery and oil pipeline in Tanzania may soon begin. Although the contract to build the refinery and pipeline was awarded in 2005, construction work never started and the project appeared to have stalled.The contract to build a refinery and pipeline in Tanzania was originally awarded to NOIT in 2005. The government awarded land for the refinery at Kisiju in the Mkuranga district to the south-west of Dar es Salaam. Since the signing of the deal, however, the project has remained at a standstill, with The East African newspaper reporting in December 2009 that building work had still not started and that the company had not made any firm financial commitments to the project. The company has not commented on the lack of progress at the refinery, but the delays may be partly attributable to the Tanzanian government's decision to change the location of the project twice in its early stages.
It is unclear whether the theft of confidential documents relating to the project in Dar es Salaam in 2007 also had an impact. According to the company's president,
Minoo Davar,
speaking on Tanzanian television on May 11, plans, designs and feasibility studies for the project are now all underway. According to a Dow Jones report based on the broadcast, Davar added that the company had already secured funding for the project.
The total costs are unclear, however, with Dow Jones and the company website claiming that the project was worth US$3.5bn, while a separate section of the company's website put the refinery costs alone at between US$5bn and US$5.4bn, and articles in Francophone news site Afrique en Ligne and Tanzania's Daily News putting total project costs at US$6bn. Davar also said that NIOT was in the final stages of talks with the Tanzanian government over the start of the project.
NOIT is owned by a consortium of the German unit of Rosneftegazstroy (formerly the Soviet Union's Ministry of Oil and Gas Construction), the Union Oil and Gas Industrialist Association of Russia and an unspecified number of members of Middle Eastern royal families. The project to construct the refinery and pipeline in Tanzania is being carried out as part of a wider consortium with six other companies, which includes an affiliate of Gazprom, US-based Saba Enterprises, Haas Gulf States and little-known Russian player Zakneftegastroy Promety.
According to NOIT's website, the 200,000b/d refinery will be located near Dar es Salaam. The company said that the site and the design of the facility would allow capacity to be expanded at a later stage. The Tanzanian government will hold a 10% stake in the refinery, with NIOT presumably holding the remaining 90%. The refinery will process 34-35º API Arabian light crude and other crudes imported from the Middle East. According to a company factsheet, there are two configurations for the refinery, although it added that both will use ExxonMobil's flexicoking technology. NOIT claims that 98% of the refinery's output would be of white products and that the plant would supply the domestic and regional markets.
Products will be supplied to consumers through a proposed pipeline running from Dar es Salaam to the town of Mwanza on the shores of Lake Victoria before running south-west to Kigoma on the shore of Lake Tanganyika. The Tanzanian government will hold a 5% stake in the pipeline. NOIT said that it was at an advanced stage of negotiations with Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi to extend the planned product pipeline from Mwanza to Uganda's oil region and beyond. A Ugandan official confirmed to Dow Jones that NOIT had approached his government, but that no agreement had been reached. He reiterated, however, that Uganda was keen to open up a new pipeline route through Tanzania ahead of the start-up of domestic oil production in 2011. Currently Uganda is dependent on the Kenyan port of Mombasa for most of its imports and exports.
With Tanzania's sole oil refinery, the Tanzanian Italian Petroleum Refinery (Tiper) having been mothballed in 1991 as part of an IMF structural adjustment programme, the country currently imports all of its refined product needs. The construction of a new 200,000b/d refinery would therefore have a huge impact on Tanzanian imports and could lead to it becoming a products exporter to neighbouring countries.
Nauliza tena bandugu, huyu
Mama Minoo Davar ni nani ?
- Ana uhusiano gani na huyu mwingine Mama Rahma Al Kharoos ?
- Wote wawili ni raia wa nchi gani ?
- Wana uhusiano gani na the land of Kilimanjaro ?
- Je, majibu yawezekana yapo Los Angels ?
- Je, viongozi wetu waliotembelea Los Angels karibuni walikutana na huyu mama ?
- Gharama zaweza kuongezeka na kufikia US$6bn, hivi bajeti ya nchi ni kiasi gani ?
- Twaambiwa shareholders wakubwa include members from the Middle East royal families, je tunauzwa kijanja ?