Africa struggling to add essential oil refining capacity

CNPC's decision to build a refinery in Chad is a rare piece of positive news in Africa's refining sector – and emphasises the region's reliance on Chinese investment, writes Ian Lewis

AFRICA must urgently build new refining capacity to meet fast-growing demand for refined products or it will face a rapidly rising import bill from Asia and Europe (see Figure 1). Demand for refined oil products across the continent is set to rise by around 40%, to 4.3m barrels a day (b/d) in 2020 from 3m b/d in 2008 (see Figure 2), according to Citac, a consultancy. That equates to a 3% annual growth rate, or around three times the global demand increase forecast by the International Energy Agency. In west and central Africa, the increase by 2020 could be as much as 60%, in southern and east Africa 57%, and North Africa 22%. Growth in demand for transport fuels – diesel and gasoline – will