 The Oil Elephant of Africa Committee |
 Abidjan Africa's Future Rotterdam |
Côte d'Ivoire is relying on hydrocarbons to ensure the success of its sustainable development policy. An unstoppable strategy has been developed to make Abidjan the continent's service-station. Everything, from exploration to production, transformation, storage, distribution and trade, has been geared towards encouraging partnerships and private-sector investments.
| Priority on enhancing hydrocarbon resources |
Côte d'Ivoire has only just begun to exploit its huge hydrocarbon deposits. Production is likely to skyrocket from 20,000 barrels of oil and 10,000 barrels oil-equivalent of gas a day to 100,000 barrels a day in 2000, doubling to 200,000 barrels between then and 2005. How can Côte d'Ivoire ensure that its "Elephant of Africa" sustainable development policy, which is based on non-renewable resources such as oil and relies heavily on hydrocarbons, mining and energy, will be successful ? Profound changes are taking place on the international oil market. Refineries are being rehabilitated in Nigeria, plans are under way to expand them in Ghana, Senegal and Cameroon and other facilities in the sub-region will shut down soon. Specifications are changing in Europe in the United States, demand for petroleum products is rising in Africa and America and hydrocarbon imports to the continent will be liberalized shortly. How will Côte d'Ivoire meet these challenges?
There is only one solution. Côte d'Ivoire must give priority to the search for added value and create a genuine oil and gas economy between now and 2005 whose centerpiece will be a start-of-the-art, international-scale refinery. The objective: to make Abidjan the region's biggest transit hub, on a par with cities like Rotterdam and Singapore. The political will has been clearly expressed. President Henri Konan Bédié and the government have approved the plan developed under the mining and oil resources ministry's auspices and are implementing the appropriate measures. The ad hoc inter-industry committee, which brings together oil industry operators and all those in charge of Côte d'Ivoire's industrial development, has been meeting since December 1997 to work out the Oil Elephant of Africa program's details. The Société nationale d'opérations pétrolières has been broken up into three operating units_ PETRCI EXPLORATION- PRODUCTION, PETROCI GAZ, PETROCI INDUSTRIES-SERVICES-capped by PETROCI HOLDING. The new organization ensures optimum allocation of human resources, logistics and financing. PETROCI HOLDING manages the government's hydrocarbon portfolio, keeping its stakes in various subsidiaries and partnerships, including SIR, SMB, GESTOCI, SIFAL and Shell Côte d'Ivoire, Elf Oil Côte d'Ivoire, etc.
| A potential of several billion barrels of oil and gas |
Côte d'Ivoire has everything it takes to become
the Rotterdam of Africa, starting with a huge potential
that has yet to be adequately assessed and enhanced.
Seismic surveys conducted all over the country since
1997 have revealed many highly promising offshore
prospects whose potential reserves are put at several
billion barrels of oil and gas. Exploration is in
full swing. In partnership with international oil
companies, PETROCI EXPLORATION-PRODUCTION is exploring
fourteen tracts that are likely to start producing
during the next decade. The first will be tract
CI-105, where deep-water drilling is scheduled to
get under way in June 1999. |
| Booming demand on every continent |
Refined products as well as crude oil have guaranteed outlets. From Mauritania to Namibia, every year the African market grows by some 10%, consumes over fifteen million tons of petroleum products and runs up against a shortfall of six million tons, especially of kerosene and gasoline. The shortage is likely to become more serious as African refineries shut down because they are too small or technologically outdated. Another factor contributing to the dearth of petroleum products is the upcoming liberalization of hydrocarbon imports. Demand for gasoline, jet fuel and diesel fuel in Africa, for lead-free gasoline in North America, where there is currently a shortage of six million tons, for very-low sulfur diesel fuel in Asia, where the present shortfall is put at four million tons and for gasoline with a very low aromatics content in Europe is growing by leaps and bounds.
| Côte d'Ivoire: a refining tradition |
Côte d'Ivoire boasts a highly-skilled workforce and production facilities with a strong technological lead, including one of Africa's two hydrocrackers. The Societé ivoirienne de raffinage (SIR) is fitted out to deliver high-quality products and conquer new markets. Relying on private-sector investments, the company's strategic plan aims to improve perfomances, boost competitiveness, increase treatment and storage capacities and strengthen logistical resources. The refinery's capacity is excepted to rise from 3.5 million to 10 million tons between now and 2005.
| Vanguard of the West African Energy Community |
The production of natural gas and its derivatives is also booming under the auspices of PETROCI GAZ. This plentiful, clean and inexpensive fuel is used to generate electricity, which costs less in Côte d'Ivoire than anywhere else in Africa, achieve the goal of bringing energy to poor inhabitants throughout the country and develop the food, textile, mining, petrochemical and other industries. Côte d'Ivoire eagerly promotes the West African Electricity and Gas Energy Community and supplies the interconnected grids of Ghana, Togo, Benin and, soon, Burkina Faso and Mali. The gas pipeline between Abidjan and Grand-Lahou is the first link in Open Access, the international natural-gas distribution network that will be extended to Takoradi to supply Ghana's power plants.
| Growth and social peace since independence |
A strategic crossroads, Côte d'Ivoire has everything it takes to become Africa's service-station. The country boasts a communications infrastructure, unparalleled in the region, to serve the markets of UEMOA (60 million consumers) and ECOWAS (200 million people). It has had an outstanding climate of social peace, national cohesiveness and political stability since independence, an institutional environment that encourages the private sector as the driving force behind growth, one of the region's largest industrial fabrics and highly-skilled, competitively-priced human resources.
| Reforming the legislative, regulatory and legal frameworks |
The government focuses special attention on the judicial and legal business environment to support the Rotterdam of Africa strategy and reform the hydrocarbon industry's legislative and regulatory framework. The oil code adopted in July 1996 emphasizes the importance of the private sector. So does the new gas code, which features many incentives. A new institutional and regulatory framework for the oil and gas industries is being drawn up with the aim of promoting healthy competition, respecting safety and environmental standards, encouraging the ongoing development of the SIR and attracting more investments to the Rotterdam of Africa. |
