VenturesNow

Egypt must import $1.18 billion worth of petroleum to address power outages— Prime Minister

Published

5 months ago

June 27, 2024

Egypt’s Prime Minister, Mostafa Madbouly, stated in a televised speech on Tuesday that the country needed to import some $1.18 billion worth of natural gas and mazut fuel to put an end to the country’s ongoing power outages, which have been made worse by recent heat waves.

By the third week of July, the administration expects to have received all of the cargoes, at which point it plans to cease power outages for the remainder of the summer, he continued.

To increase its strategic stocks, it has already begun contracting for 300,000 tonnes of mazut worth $180 million, which is anticipated to arrive early next week.

In response to a spike in home electricity demand during the most recent heat wave, Egypt’s government on Monday extended daily power outages to three hours from two hours earlier.

According to Madbouly on Tuesday, these three-hour cutbacks would last until the end of June. After that, they will resume at two hours for the first part of July, to cease entirely for the remainder of the summer.

The impact of the blackouts has sparked a flurry of complaints on Egyptian social media, with some users claiming they have been compelled to buy private power generators.

Teenagers getting ready for the important high school diploma have been especially affected by the issue; some have posted about pupils studying in coffee shops and by candlelight. In the seaside city of Port Said, a wedding hall owner announced that he would convert one of his ballrooms into a study hall.

Since July of last year, most areas have seen scheduled daily power outages lasting two hours due to load shedding caused by declining gas supply, increasing demand, and a lack of foreign cash.

“We had said that we planned to end load shedding by the end of 2024… we do not have a power generation problem or a network problem, we are unable to provide fuel,” Madbouly said on Tuesday.
“With the increase in consumption related to the major development and population increase, there has been a lot of pressure on our dollar resources,” he added.

Without identifying the nation or the gas field, he said that production in a nearby country had completely stopped for 12 hours, disrupting the supply.

Abu Qir Fertilizers, based in Egypt, announced on Tuesday that three of its units had stopped producing due to a disruption in their natural gas supply.

VenturesNow

Kenya seeks $750m from World Bank, obtains $200m from AfDB— Official

Published

1 day ago

November 20, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The head of debt management for the finance ministry told Reuters that Kenya had obtained a $200 million loan from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and was negotiating a fresh $750 million loan with the World Bank.

After being forced to abandon proposed tax rises costing more than 346 billion shillings ($2.68 billion) in June due to fatal demonstrations, the East African nation’s administration, which has been grappling with significant debt, has been frantically seeking fresh funding.

The Finance Ministry’s public debt management office director general, Raphael Owino, told Reuters that the IMF’s October clearance of the seventh and eighth reviews, which opened the door for a $606 million loan tranche, had aided the ministry’s talks for more loans.

“The World Bank is coming on board, riding on the back of IMF receipts,” Owino said. “The AfDB is already on board.”

The discussions for more assistance, which came under the World Bank’s “Development Policy Operations” (DPO) with the government, were confirmed by a representative at the organization’s Kenya office.

“The amount of the current (loan) is yet to be determined. The amount will also depend on the implementation of the policy reforms agreed upon,” the spokesperson told Reuters, adding that past DPO loans averaged about $750 million.

In May, the World Bank approved the latest round of DPO loans, totalling $1.2 billion.

According to a statement made last month by Finance Minister John Mbadi, Kenya has set a foreign borrowing goal of 168 billion shillings for the fiscal year ending in June 2025.

VenturesNow

Dangote refinery begins petroleum sales to West Africa

Published

2 days ago

November 20, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

In an indication to traders that the activities of its mega-refinery might soon disrupt regional fuel markets, Nigeria’s private Dangote Petroleum Refinery has started exporting refined petroleum products to neighbouring West African nations.

According to a Bloomberg story on Tuesday, a tanker had transported a consignment of petrol from the Dangote Petroleum Refinery to seas off the coast of Togo, a nearby West African nation. The article cited data from Vortexa, Kpler, Precise Intelligence, a port report, and a ship-tracking tool.

According to the source, a CL Jane Austen recently departed west after loading over 300,000 barrels from Dangote.

Recall that Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, the chairman of the Ghana National Petroleum Authority, stated last month that the nation is thinking of purchasing petroleum products from the Dangote refinery in order to reduce the approximately $400 million it spends each month on more costly exports from Europe.

Speaking at the OTL Africa Downstream Oil Conference in Lagos, the chairman of NPA, Ghana, said that by eliminating freight expenses, buying from Nigeria instead of Europe will lower the cost of other products and services.

“If the refinery reaches 650,000bpd a day capacity, all that volume cannot be consumed by Nigeria alone, so instead of us importing as we do right now from Rotterdam, it will be much easier for us to import from Nigeria and I believe that will bring down our prices,” Hamid said.

Two weeks ago, it was announced that the refinery would start exporting fuel to Namibia, Angola, and South Africa. Four more African nations—Niger Republic, Chad, Burkina Faso, and Central Africa Republic—had also begun talks with the refinery, it was said.

According to a very reliable source who spoke directly to one of our reporters, the management of the refinery with a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day was in the advanced stages of negotiations with the nations to begin lifting petroleum.

“I can confirm to you that talks are actually at the advanced stage with Ghana, Angola, Namibia, and South Africa, while the initial discussion is coming up with Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso, and the Central African Republic,” the source said.

The petroleum product shipment is currently floating off the coast of Lome, which is a well-liked location for ship-to-ship transfers, according to the source.

Furthermore, the final destination of the cargo of the CL Jane Austen is uncertain.

Despite being off Togo, the region is frequently utilised for ship-to-ship transfers, thus the gasoline may eventually be transported elsewhere.

“While the shipment is tiny in the context of the global gasoline market, it signals the ramp-up of Dangote’s production and the potential to export significant volumes of gasoline beyond Nigeria, which could upend regional markets.”

Last month, the refinery sent its first shipment of petrol by sea to Lagos, a neighbouring commercial centre.

Under the regulatory statute, the Federal Government last month terminated the state-owned oil company’s monopoly on purchasing gasoline from the plant for domestic use, but it has permitted the ongoing importation of fuel from the US and Europe.