Petroleum Africa
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Friday, March 9, 2007
Negotiations are underway to build a new refinery along the
The announcement came after the signing of an agreement between Port Elizabeth-based black empowerment company Bidevco, involved in cargo, storage, crude oil, and general trade, and K.Inada. K.Inada said talks with Bidevco had started in
Experts said that a refinery of this nature could cost up to R21-billion to build, but would make good business sense because crude oil from Nigeria and Angola was at the moment being shipped to the Americas to be refined before it was shipped to the East. Bidevco COO Jacques van Wyk said: “The
Representatives of the Rio de Janeiro and Japanese-based company K.Inada were silent about the announcement, but the firm‘s chief executive officer, Alfredo Kaiichi Inada, said that although they were not prepared to link the refinery directly to Coega, the deepwater port made the Industrial Development Zone strategically one of the best places to build a refinery.
“This is a study to investigate the viability of a model we have developed over the past two years. It will take at least four to five months to finish,” Inada said.
He said they would talk to government agencies, study legislation, community needs, environmental practices, and local and international needs as well as supply markets of crude oil and markets for the offset of refined products before decisions could be taken. Time frames would be subject to information gathered from the feasibility study.
Inada stressed that the initiative would not “in the least” impact local petroleum operations. “This is focused on international needs. It is the rest of the world, particularly the East, which needs the bi-products of a refinery. But we will also look at opportunities for local entrepreneurs,” he said.
The CEO said that while his multinational company was involved in the project, it would remain a South African project, initiated and controlled by a South African company.
The group‘s site visit to Coega on March 7 also included a meeting with the minerals and energy department. Other sites are, however, also being looked at.
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