South Sudanese oil marketing firm, Trinity Energy, plans to construct a $500 million crude oil refinery in South Sudan for the sale of refined petroleum products. The company is also set to make $10 million worth of new investments in its Kenyan operations.
The refinery is to be built by U.S firm, Chemex. Operations are to commence in two to three years, and the company plans to also distribute refined petroleum products to Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo. These distributions will be done by road as no railways or pipelines are connecting these countries.
The feasibility study and designs of the refinery have been concluded with Afreximbank and some big regional banks operating in Juba are expected to provide the financing.
Located at Paloch in the oil-rich Upper Nile State, the modular refinery will be able to refine 40,000 barrels per day, with a potential to expand to 200,000 barrels per day with petroleum storage facilities at Nesitu, in the south of the country.
Speaking to East African on the proposed project, the Chief Executive Officer of Trinity Energy said, “We are already making steady progress towards our refinery project. We have already identified and secured land for the refinery in Paloch. We have engaged Chemex of the United States as the project manager for this project. Separately we are close to tying up project preparatory work financing from Afreximbank and this will aid in the engineering and design work for the facility.”
“Various discussions are ongoing with financiers for the various facets of our business. We have opted for segmented approach so that we can kick off with the low-hanging opportunities such as our working capital requirements as we work our way towards financing for the larger projects like the refinery.”
The construction of the refinery is part of the company’s five-year (2020 – 2024) growth and expansion plan. The plan is to expand its operations across the East and Central African region through a combination of acquisitions and greenfield investments.
