Trinity Energy Ltd, the South Sudan oil marketing giant, is set to build a $500 million crude oil refinery in South Sudan in the next three years.
The firm, which controls close to 40% of the South Sudanese oil market, is planning a 40,000 barrels per day (bpd) modular refinery at Paloch in the oil-rich Upper Nile State, with the potential of expanding capacity to 200,000 bpd, as well as petroleum storage facilities at Nesitu, in the south of the country.
South Sudan is estimated to have 3.5 billion barrels however, most of it is yet to be explored making it the third-largest oil reserve in Africa after Libya and Nigeria.
The refinery is expected to process an estimated 60,000 barrels of oil per day with an initial output of 30,000 barrels per day at the time of the commissioning of the project.
Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi have expressed interest in the project and will therefore be allocated 40 % shareholding in the refinery. This results to 8% of the shares for each country , with 60 % of the shares reserved for private investors.
However, according to a report by the firm , only Tanzania took up its full share of 8% while Kenya took up 2.5 %.
Rwanda and Burundi had not expressed interest in the facility by the expiry of the extended period set aside to do so in 2016. As a result, Uganda was compelled to take up an additional 11.5 % shareholding in the Hoima-based refinery, bringing its total shareholding to 19.5 %, with French oil giant Total SA taking up a 10 %.
The firm’s chief executive Mr Robert Mdeza said that they were also planning to inject $10 million worth of new investments in its Kenyan operations. He further on stated that kenya is the biggest petroleum market in East Africa hence it is very important to the firm.
Currently, the firm plans to revive its subsidiary in Kenya, which would play a significant role in its bid to expand its operations to other East African countries.
