Senegal plans to begin construction of a second oil refinery next year to expand its domestic processing capacity and is seeking between $2 billion and $5 billion in investment for the project, the CEO of the national refining company SAR said on Thursday.
Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of an African energy conference in Cape Town, Mamadou Abib Diop said the country had already received financing offers from potential partners, including China, Turkey, and South Korea.
He explained that feedstock for the new refinery would primarily come from Senegal’s offshore Sangomar oil and gas field, operated by Woodside Energy with the national oil company Petrosen holding a minority stake.
The field began production last year with an annual output of 34.5 million barrels, equivalent to about 4.6 million tons.
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SAR, which is West Africa’s oldest refinery, currently processes 1.5 million tons of crude oil per year, or around 30,000 barrels a day.
However, it struggles to meet local demand. “This gap we will cover with a project named SAR 2.0, which means that we will add a second refinery site in order to add 4 million tons (of processing capacity) per year,” Diop said.
By the targeted 2029 production start-up date, SAR aims to achieve self-sufficiency in petroleum product supply and potentially begin exports to other parts of the region.
Diop added that no final decision had been made on the refinery’s location or on whether the government would hold an equity stake in its development.
“A lot of investors are coming and giving their interest about financing these projects,” he said.
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Image Credit: Tekedia
