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African Refiners & Distributors Association, the African Union And Stakeholders to Ensure Standard Refined Products Critical to Africa
Posted On 25 Jul 2020
By Richard Adorsu-
Photo Credit: Oilprice
NEW AFRICA BUSINESS NEWS (NABN) Accra, Ghana- A move by the African Refiners & Distributors Association (ARA), and the African Union (AU), by ensuring common standard for importation and refining of petroleum products in the continent remains critical to trade, environment and the economy of the region, stakeholders announced.
Under the plan, Africa is expected to adopt harmonized AFRI Clean Fuel Specifications across. The Cleaner Fuel spec recommends adoption of AFRI five (50 ppm sulphur for gasoline and diesel) by 2025, and AFRI 6 spec (10 ppm for same products) by 2030.
ARA Executive Secretary, Anibor Kragha, told the media that the objective is to stop the importation of fuels not meeting these AFRI specs into Africa by 2021, and give existing refineries until 2025 to upgrade their facilities to produce the cleaner specs.
This comes when a number of refineries are already springing up in Nigeria, even as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), also considers rehabilitating its existing refineries.
Kragha disclosed that the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Council of Ministers of Hydrocarbons in February 2020 already recommended product imports to meet AFRI five specs by 2021, and regional refineries to meet AFRI five specs by 2025.
While some stakeholders are concerned about the poor implementation of existing regulations in Nigeria, they noted that the new standard would allow petroleum products to be moved easily across Africa.
They also noted that the development would create uniform trade deals, boost pan African collaboration and allow uniform framework for implementation.
Recently, Stakeholders Democracy Network (SDN), had claimed that samples of petrol from illegal refineries in the Niger Delta were of a higher quality than imported equivalents, alleging that fuel exported from Europe exceeded EU pollution limits by as much as 204 times.
Although the standard currently being used in Nigeria is 150 ppm for petrol, the stakeholders condemned the regulation, saying it is 15 times higher than the EU standard.
Kragha said that AU and ARA had jointly held a virtual Consultative Forum with key stakeholders across the continent, including NNPC, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), ECOWAS, SAR of Senegal, NPA of Ghana, NOC of Ethiopia, Sonangol, SAPIA of South Africa, Sasol, UNEP, and others.
He revealed that the stakeholders’ input would be submitted to the AU Technical Meeting of African Energy Ministers in October, adding that two more consultative sessions are planned for July 13, and July 30, ahead of the report submission in August/September.
According to him, ARA also planned to develop a register of projects for upgrading refineries and infrastructure across Africa and engage financiers, including the African Development Finance Institutions like Asian Development Bank, Afrexim Bank, and the Africa Finance Corporation, to secure the required funding for these critical upgrade projects.
“Another key focus area is for African countries, especially those sharing common fuel supply chains, to develop an integrated policy covering both fuel quality and vehicle exhaust emissions to achieve the ultimate objective of Clean Air in our African cities. Without this integrated, coordinated policy, the objective of clean air will not be realized whether by imports or local production,” Kragha stated.
But Adeola Adenikinju of the Department of Economics, and Centre for Petroleum, Energy Economics and Law, University of Ibadan, said the development was lauded, especially if all the countries on the continent could sign up to the new standard.
Stating that Nigeria is supposed to be at the vanguard of pushing for such a standard, Adenikinju noted that allowing for a uniform model across the continent is vital to trade.
He said: “We have standards in Nigeria; but our problem is implementation. DPR and other agencies have standard quality but those products still come into the country without meeting specifications. That is a key area we need to look at.
“Even when we have the common standard, if we don’t work on our implementation, enforcement and sanction we won’t achieve the desired objectives. One, we cannot guarantee it, and other African countries won’t trust our products even when that common standard is there. It will affect our ability to trade.”
PricewaterhouseCoopers’s Associate Director, Energy, Utilities and Resources, Habeeb Jaiyeola, warned that Nigeria cannot afford to overlook the regulation at a time when private and other modular refineries are being built.
He stressed the need for the specifications to put local realities across the countries into consideration, urging Nigeria to review existing regulations to ensure that proper preparation was made for the success of such a plan.
To him, the challenges of climate change and other environmental issues on the continent is unacceptable, therefore the need to keep to global best practices is necessary.
For New Africa Business News Richard Adorsu Reports, Africa Correspondent
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Thank you for reporting. Africa first. Quality only. Manelesi in Johannesburg South Africa
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I totally agreed for cleaner fuel and cleaner air for our Continent. Peter in Nairobi Kenya
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Thank you for reporting on this. We need clean energy and clean air for the Continent. Live long and happy. Cape town South Africa. Noxolo
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Thank you my fellow Ghanaian, great reporting. Regular reader of new Africa. Kaseem in Accra Ghana
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Thank you for your reporting’s. And thank you for signing me to my favorite online newspaper, new Africa business news. Angie! London UK
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Richard thank you. You made me proud to be Ghanaian. love reading your reports. Accra Ghana. Adwin
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Follower of new Africa news. Great and beautiful reporting. Continue keeping us inform. Joshua in Nairobi Kenya
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Africans should be self dependent and this is the right move us. Nice piece.
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Great! Thank you for keeping us informed. Best online newspaper.
Barbara,Accra, Ghana.
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Great piece, this is very informative, and will go a long way to help Africa. Keep up your good works!
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