By Patience Chat Moses
African Refiners and Distributors Association (ARDA) has said that there was a need for market-equivalent pricing and taxation framework if the downstream segment of the continent’s petroleum industry will attract needed investment.
Executive Secretary of ARDA, Anibor Kragha, said this while delivering a presentation at the Oil Trading & Logistics 2023 Expo in Lagos, where he added that there was a need for the continent to also create a clear policy to grow security in the aspect of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).
Kragha, in his presentation on “Africa Refining: Regional Sufficiency and Global Energy Transition,” said there was a need for coordination across the continent.
According to him, tightening and harmonisation of cleaner oil product specifications remained sacrosanct in the face of looming health and environmental dangers.
He also called for transparency and forward visibility around medium to long-term regulatory frameworks as well as coordination across key sectoral Ministries to support investors’ business plans.
Kragha stated that sub-Saharan Africa oil products demand would hit 177 million metric tons by 2040.
He indicated that the rising demand in Africa requires significant investment in storage and distribution infrastructure adding that efficient regional infrastructure would lead to economies of scale.
Kragha also called on the continent to publicly publish available documentation covering various licensing processes and encourage long-term carbon mitigation strategies, saying it has serious implications for the future of refining and finance.
He also revealed that the Association is working on the adoption of a
harmonized pan-African clean petrol specification, particularly Afri 6 or 10 per of gas per million parts of air(ppm) specification for fuel across Africa.
“In Africa we have 11 different grades of diesel or gas oil engine from 10 ppm to 10,000 ppm and for gasoline (petrol), we have 12 different grades ranging from 10ppm to 2,500 ppm. So that initiative is to have a single 10ppm grade by 2030 across Africa,” he stated.
He further said that ARDA was spearheading investments across the extensive downstream value chain, adding that the focus was firmly on bolstering Africa’s energy security by optimising the utilization of African crude oil within African refineries and facilitating the transportation of cleaner fuels through an integrated storage and distribution infrastructure across the continent.