cityview lines up west african oil refinery

article in african oil & gas monitor 19 august 2008

Australia-based CityView Corporation
has announced its intention to construct a
refinery in West Africa.
The company, in a statement on
August 18, said the deal would cost
US$320 million – most of which would
be debt finance. Talks on financing for
the deal are now underway. Work on the
refinery is being carried out in the US
and it will be transported – in modular
form – to a site in West Africa, which
will allow for “more rapid assembly,” the
company said.
The plant will have a capacity of
around 50,000 barrels per day, CityView
continued, but some work is being
undertaken on it so that it can process
West African feedstock.
The parts are to be shipped to the site
in December and the plant is expected to
be operational in the first quarter of 2010
– although these dates are contingent on
local government approval.
The Australian company did not reveal
where the plant would be – beyond the
“west coast of Africa” – although it did
say that this would be revealed in “due
course.”
CityView said it would acquire the
refinery in its own name, rather than that
of Pensador Resources.
The company has operations in Angola
and Cameroon, so these would be the
likely sites for its planned refinery. In
November 2007 it signed deals to access
reserves in both countries.
There is one refinery in Cameroon,
capable of processing 45,000 bpd, with a
similar plant in Angola. Luanda is keen
to improve its downstream prospects and
plans to build a 200,000 bpd refinery in
Lobito. However, the foreign partner
which was to assist in this scheme,
China’s state-owned Sinopec, appears to
have pulled out of the project and it is not
known whether any more progress has
been made.􀀁