The Executive Secretary of the African Refiners and Distributors (ARDA), Anibor Kragha has said that all African refiners will need to use one single petrol (gasoline) grade by 2030.
He said this during the recently concluded World Petroleum Congress (WPC) held in Calgary, Canada.
According to him, ARDA is working on the adoption of a harmonized pan–African clean petrol specification, particularly Afri 6 or 10 per of gas per million parts of air(ppm) specification for fuel across Africa.
- “In Africa we have 11 different grades of diesel or gas oil engine from 10 ppm to 10,000 ppm and for gasoline (petrol), we have 12 different grades ranging from 10ppm to 2,500 ppm. So that initiative is to have a single 10ppm grade by 2030 across Africa.”
According to Kragha, a fundamental objective of the African Refiners and Distributors Association (ARDA) is to spearhead investments across the extensive downstream value chain.
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The focus is firmly on bolstering Africa’s energy security by optimizing the utilization of African crude oil within African refineries and facilitating the transportation of cleaner fuels through an integrated storage and distribution infrastructure across the continent.
Addressing the predicament of Africa’s limited refining capacity, which strains its foreign exchange due to substantial imports of petroleum products, Kragha emphasized that ARDA remains committed to promoting and facilitating heightened investments in refining capacity across the African landscape.
This strategic approach seeks to ensure that the escalating demand for petroleum products within the continent is adequately met with cleaner fuels, thus mitigating the foreign exchange burden.
He underscored the promising outlook for the African refining and petrochemicals sector in the coming decades. This optimistic perspective is grounded in the convergence of two critical factors: a significant surge in energy demand and substantial population growth anticipated across the continent during this period.
Backstory
ARDA has consistently advocated for the implementation of the AFRI 6 petrol specification since the year 2020. As explained by Kragha in the same year, it was projected that Africa would embrace the standardized AFRI 5 specifications (50 ppm sulphur for both petrol and diesel) by the year 2025.
Additionally, the continent aimed to adopt the even cleaner AFRI 6 specification (10 ppm for the same products) by the year 2030.
This strategic initiative was designed to curtail the importation of fuels that do not conform to these AFRI specifications into Africa, set to be enforced by the year 2021.
Furthermore, it provided an extended window for existing refineries to upgrade their facilities to align with the cleaner specifications, granting them until 2025 for the necessary adjustments.
Note that the Federal Government of Nigeria has said that the Warri, Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries will all be active between 2023 and 2024, following the quick-fix rehabilitation work ongoing at the respective refineries.
Also, the Dangote refinery is expected to start refining diesel and aviation fuel this month of October 2023 and petrol by November 2023.
