By YUSINYU OMER in Yaoundé
The steering committee for the implementation of the reconstruction plan of the nation’s lone oil refinery will take place in Limbe Thursday, September 15, 2022 and will be chaired by the minister of finance Louis Paul Motaze.
According to a circular signed by the Senior Divisional Officer for Fako, defense and security forces have been called upon to ensure smooth deliberations in Thurday’s meeting.
Since the fire outbreak at the refinery on May 31, 2019, Cameroon has been importing all of its clean petroleum products (super, diesel, kerosene) marketed on the national territory.To support the struggling national refinery, the government authorised SONARA to import 80% of the petroleum products through oil traders to supply the domestic market.
On May 31, 2020 to mark the first anniversary of the fire that destroyed most of the National Refining Company, the Minister of Water and Energy Gaston ELOUNDOU ESSOMBA, provided some information on the project to rehabilitate the damaged infrastructure. Speaking on the national broadcasting radio CRTV, the member of government said. “I can tell you that to date, a summary study has already shown us the various options we have for the rehabilitation of this institution. Moreover, the first estimates put the cost of the work at around FCFA 250 billion and several companies have already expressed interest in carrying out this work”.
Gaston Eloundou Essomba also stated that the reconstruction of SONARA largely depended on the pace at which funds were to be mobilized.
On November 26, 2021, the Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute, while presenting the government’s 2022 economic, financial, social, and cultural program before the parliament in Yaoundé, said rehabilitation of the SONARA’s plant, which was partially destroyed by a fire outbreak on May 31, 2019, will start in 2022.
One of the prerequisites for the reconstruction of the refinery was therefore the restructuring of the debts owed to both its creditors as well as the oil traders. On October 15, 2021 at HiltonHotel in Yaoundé, Cameroon signed a repayment agreement for the FCFA 261.4 billion debt owed by the national refinery SONARA to nine local banks. A gesture greatly appreciated by the general manager of the corporation Jean-Paul Simo Njonou. He thanked the government for the relief measure and equally expressed his gratitude to these banks for their great cooperation.
Finance Minister Louis Paul Motaze who presided at the event noted that the signing of the agreement restructuring the debt owed by SONARA to banks clearly demonstrated the goodwill and readiness of these banks to accompany the state of Cameroon in its drive towards the emergence of Cameroon by 2035.
The committee which was formed after the announcement of the rehabilitation works by the prime minister will therefore converge in Limbe this Thursday September 15 to map the way forward for the reconstruction to start as soon as possible.
Created in 1973 and inaugurated in 1981, SONARA is a topping reforming refinery. SONARA places at the disposal of the market the following petroleum products: butane, gasoline, jet fuel, kerosene, fuel oil, and distillate.
The Limbe refinery has a theoretical capacity of 2,100,000 tons/year. It was conceived at first to treat light crude (Arabian light). However Cameroon currently produces heavy crude and one notes an inadequacy between the existing tools in the refinery and the crudes available.