SOCAR Downstream has been appointed project management consultant to the Republic of the Congo’s national oil company and has begun preliminary work on modernizing the country’s only oil refinery.
The Azerbaijani company is advising Société Nationale des Pétroles du Congo, or SNPC, which owns the CORAF refinery in Pointe-Noire, according to Report.az.
Pre-FEED Phase Begins
The project has entered the Pre-FEED phase, an early engineering and feasibility stage used to define the technical concept, scope and main requirements before detailed design. SOCAR Downstream Managing Director Emil Alkhasli said the company supported the official launch of this phase as the refinery’s project management consultant.
The move does not mean construction has started. Engineers will first assess the plant’s condition and determine the main areas of work needed to expand and modernize its production facilities.
Refinery Capacity and Domestic Supply
CORAF has a design capacity of 27,000 barrels of crude oil per day but currently processes about 20,000 barrels a day, or less than 1 million metric tons annually. More than half of its petroleum products are used to meet domestic demand in the Republic of the Congo.
The refinery has operated in Pointe-Noire since December 1982. The Republic of the Congo, an OPEC member since 2018, has estimated proven oil reserves of 1.8 billion barrels.
The current work follows an agreement signed by SOCAR and SNPC in Baku on April 4, 2024, covering the improvement and expansion of the refinery. SOCAR Trading has also marketed CORAF crude and some of its petroleum products internationally since 2023.