Page 53 - Nigeriaone mag 2 edition en

The global refineries saga

Oil refinery, illustrative image

Sasol, a 108 000 bpd South African fuel producer, Although the African continent's most important
declared a force majeure for the refining of pro- oil producer is having production issues, it is
ducts due to a poor study of the supply of crude oil. strongly betting on the opening of the Dangote, a
Important delays were noticed on the flow of the 650 000-bpd refinery by the end of this year and
black gold which in turn impacted the functioning has made significant investments to revamp its
of refineries. production and transformation.
This recurring phenomenon observed since the On the other hand, based on 2021 statistics, Asia
beginning of COVID 19 has had negative effects on with its 316 refineries hosts the world's greater
the oil sector. Many refineries that were capable of numbers of refineries. That is the reason why it
transforming coal, a far more polluting source of does not seem to be greatly affected by the world-
energy, have already resumed energy production. wide phenomena of closing refineries worldwide.
In addition, the Russia – Ukraine crisis is not ma-
king things any easier and has significantly redu-
ced the availability of the crude oil in the interna-
tional market.
Refining capabilities have drastically decreased to
about 20% since 2020. For instance, Marathon Pet-
roleum said in August 2020 that it would perma-
nently close two refineries in Martinez, California,
and Gallup. In the US alone, five refineries have
shut down within the past two years bringing the
nation's refining capacity by about 5% as of June
2022.
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