The African Refiners and Distributors Association (ARDA) has said that the eight ongoing refinery projects on the continent will increase the production of jet-A1 fuel by 95 per cent when they are completed.
Executive Secretary, ARDA, Anibor Kragha, said the continent’s growing population would continue to increase demand for aviation fuels, adding that local refineries must be encouraged to mitigate the current challenges.
Kragha, who spoke at the ARDA Storage/Distribution & Jet Fuel Forum in Dakar, Senegal, pointed out that improving local refining capacity within Africa would not only reduce supply chain shocks, but enable the continent to enforce harmonised standards.
He noted that Africa’s import dependent aviation fuel market and the drastic reduction in capacity utilisation across refineries on the continent were responsible for the Jet-A1 crisis facing the continent.
Kragha further stated that the gross inadequacy of refineries across the continent posed serious bottlenecks to the implementation of cleaner fuel specifications.
Also speaking at the forum, Executive Director, CITAC Africa, James McCullagh said three North African countries – Algeria, Egypt and Libya accounted for almost all export of Jet-A1 production in Africa.
He noted that while African jet-A1 demand grew by 3.2million metric tonnes (49 per cent) between 2006 and 2019, it slumped by 4.7million tonnes (48 per cent) in 2020 owing to the pandemic.
According to him, the 2019 demand levels may not be reached until 2024-2025, as steady growth is expected to be driven by regional routes and population growth.
He stated further that a key reason for declining production is the number of refineries that either closed permanently or went into long-term shutdown between January 2012 and December 2021 and noted that this has reduced Africa’s operating refinery capacity by over 1 million barrels per day.
