General Information
| Type: | Simple Oil Refinery Oil and Gas | |
| Status: | Underway | |
| Date Commissioned: | 01.Jan.1963 | |
| Capacity: | 160000 tonnes/yr | |
| Location: |
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Overview
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The Société Congo-Italienne de Raffinage (SOCIR), previously known as Société Zairo-Italienne de Raffinage (SOZIR) refinery located at Kinlao on the coast near Muanda (Moanda), Democratic Republic of Congo, is a topping and reforming refinery with a nameplate distillation capacity of 750 ktonnes per annum (15,000 bpd), though operation tends to be around 50% of rated capacity. The refinery, originally opened in 1963, is owned by the DRC government (50%) and Agip (50%) who are also the operators. The refinery also has a large third party processing agreement with Chevron. The refinery was originally designed to process low-sulphur Iranian crude and cannot handle the heavier DRC crude produced from oil fields closeby. Typical feedstock currently being run are the Nigerian crudes, Bonny, Escravos and Pennington. This is one of the African oil refineries identified for closure by the World Bank. The operating status of the refinery is uncertain due to the existing civil war. The government is looking to upgrade the refinery to a capacity of 50,000 bpd. It would need investment of approximately US$ 150 million for the project. |
Refinery Units
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The Sozir refinery has the following main production units:(capacities in barrels per day)
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Refinery Service Providers
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Multinationals Fluor Daniel and Kvaerner have both been extensively involved in the design, construction and expansion of African refineries as well as undertaking specialist refinery studies, while Chempro and CPI Engineering are key suppliers of catalysts, process chemicals, performance additives and specialised dyestuffs to Southern African refineries as the local representative of major international companies. |
