Industry

PE Energy opens new Centre of Excellence to support Nigerian content

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Over the weekend, PE Energy officially opened its new Centre of Excellence for valves assembly, valves actuation, metering systems, pump and compressor solutions, process automation and control systems integration in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

The state-of-the-art facility covers over 11,000 m2 and was constructed by Megastar Technical Construction Co. It is set to become one of Africa’s best vendors agnostic center boosting the utilisation of indigenous materials and local talent in Nigeria.

The Center of Excellence notably builds on PE Energy’s decades of experience in Nigeria and partnerships with some of the world’s leading original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the areas of process automation, control systems and valves manufacturing.

The facility is now able to domesticate built-in Nigeria solutions with the support of PE Energy’s technical partners and OEMs. It is equipped with high-precision equipment for complete upgrade of manual and standard actuated valves, the manufacture and assembly of instrument fittings, automation and system integration, the testing and calibrating of valves and flow measurement instruments.

PE Energy has already demonstrated the use of the Centre when it performed, last September, the first in-country Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) on wellhead multiphase wet gas metering solutions, in partnership with Solartron ISA, for Shell’s Gbaran Ubie Phase 3A Project.

Just last week, PE Energy and Middle East automation and control systems integration provider Avanceon have secured a new contract to help revive the Kalaekule oilfield on OML 72. Under the agreement, both companies will be delivering electrohydraulic wellhead control panel for the field’s offshore facilities. The project will also be executed at the Centre of Excellence in Port Hartcourt.

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Nigeria: RainOil completes acquisition of majority stake in Eterna Plc

RainOil has completed its acquisition of 63.6% of the shares of Eterna Plc though its investment arms, Preline Ltd (60.9%) and Norsworthy Investments (2.6%). The Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA) was executed on August 25th, 2021. The transaction had been reported in Hawilti’s Q3 M&A Watch, available within the Hawilti+ research terminal. The acquisition of Eterna will further consolidate RainOil’s market presence in Nigeria. Over the past two years, the Nigerian company has been investing heavily into its asset base which currently include three ultra-modern petroleum product storage deports in Delta, Cross River and Lagos, a 8,000 metric tonnes LPG storage facility in Lagos, over 100 retail outlets and a fleet of over 140 petroleum product tank trucks. The Nigerian downstream sector is going through significant consolidation as players seek to expand their reach and network to benefit from economies of scale in a market where PMS remains heavily subsidised and regulated. In January this year, Ardova Plc announced it was acquiring Enyo Retail & Supply, a private oil marketer with 95 retail stations in Nigeria.

Tanzania issues special mining license for world’s largest unexploited nickel deposits

Following the signing of the Framework Agreement last January, the Government of Tanzania has now issued a special mining licence (SML) for a period of over 30 years for the Kabanga Nickel project, covering the full life of the project. The Kabanga Nickel Project holds the world’s largest development-ready nickel sulphide deposit and will produce Class 1 battery grade nickel, cobalt and copper. Its cradle-to-gate operation will notably rely on the hydromet technology, which is more cost efficient than smelting but can also reduce the carbon footprint and environmental impact of operations. Based on approximately 600 km of drilling, Kabanga’s previous owners, Barrick Gold Corporation and Glencore, had published a 2014 Resource Estimate (Measured, Indicated and Inferred) of 58 million tonnes of ore at an average in-situ nickel grade of 2.62%. Mineralisation of the resource is greater than 95% massive sulphide. In order the develop the project, Kabanga Nickel and the Government of Tanzania had signed last January a Framework Agreement establishing the Tembo Nickel Corporation. The operating company is now the one in charge of mining, processing and refining the Class 1 nickel with cobalt and copper co-products. Tembo is owned at 84% by Kabanga Nickel with the remaining 16% held by the Government of Tanzania. By accelerating the development of the project, Kabanga Nickel will be increasing the supply of crucial minerals in the development and manufacture of batteries used in electric vehicles. On the back of growing demand for EV batteries, global supply of nickel is forecast to grow from 2.25 million tonnes in 2020 to 5 million tonnes by 2040, according to Roskill.