Equatorial Guinea $1bn projects slated for 2020

Equatorial Guinea Minister of Mines and Hydrocarbons, Gabriel Mbaga Obiang Lima, has announced ten public-private partnership-led projects which will be open for investment in 2020.

“2019 is a year in which we showed the world our potential. That was phase one. Phase two is the investment year. For many years, we’ve been exploiting our resources and exporting them, but now is the time that we get to the stage of processing,” Lima said on the sidelines of the 2nd Gas Exporting Countries Forum International Gas Seminar in Malabo.

“Midstream is going to be very important because we already have the resources. Our crude is going to China and our liquefied natural gas is going to Asia. What then can we do with our resources to add value in the midstream and downstream?”

The answer to this question are the ten projects, the first of which is the construction of a 20,000-barrel per day (bpd) modular oil refinery which will refine crude from the Zafiro and Aseng fields into gasoline, kerosene and Jet 1, among other petroleum derivatives.

A second modular refinery will produce 10,000-20,000 bpd and will be located on the mainland in Kogo next to the country’s regasification and cement plants. A third refinery is also planned in Kogo to refine the gold being exploited in both the country and the wider central African region.

The next three projects, in Malabo, Bata and Kogo, are the construction of state-owned and state-managed strategic tanks that will be able to refine and store oil, gasoline and liquefied petroleum gas.

The ministry also aims to construct a methanol-to-gasoline unit to meet domestic consumption with the possibility of exporting to neighboring countries in the future.

To enable the processing and production of minerals, a urea plant is scheduled for Kogo to complement the country’s recently held first mining licensing round and it aims to centralize the exploitation of minerals to Kogo and environs.

The final project involves the country’s compressed natural gas (CNG) plant which includes a bus terminal and gas-powered bus fleet, cooking gas bottling facility and upgraded road infrastructure, and positions Equatorial Guinea as the first country in the region to use CNG for transport. The Ministry aims to implement CNG for the majority of public vehicles and to increase storage of CNG through partnerships with companies such as Total and state-owned GEPetrol.