- African Refiners is partnering with the African Union to adopt harmonised pan-African clean fuel specifications.
- The continent needs to bring in cleaner fuels like Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) for cleaner cooking to avoid a health crisis.
The African Refiners and Distributors Association (ARDA) has committed to having a single grade of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly called petrol, by 2030. ARDA reached this agreement due to the different grades of petroleum products across Africa and their health implications. Executive Secretary, ARDA, Mr. Anibor Kragha, stated this at the CEO Strategic Session 1: ‘’Market Outlook for Petrochemicals and Refineries of the Future’’ at the 24th World Petroleum Congress(WPC) which ended in Calgary, Canada, last week.
He stated that ARDA is partnering with the African Union on adopting harmonised pan-African clean fuel specifications. The fuel specification is particularly Afri 6 or 10 per gas per million parts of air(ppm) for fuel across Africa. According to him, one of the key objectives of ARDA is to champion investments across the entire downstream value chain and, more recently, geopolitically.
He explained that though Africa is not directly involved in the Russia-Ukraine crisis but rather more focused on African energy security, the continent can achieve this by possibly maximising African crude oil in African refineries and transportation of cleaner fuels from African refineries via integrated storage distribution infrastructure across the continent.
‘‘It may interest you to know that in Africa, we have 11 different grades of diesel or gas oil engines from 10 ppm to 10,000 ppm, and for gasoline, we have 12 different grades ranging from 10 ppm to 2,500 ppm. So that initiative is to have a single 10ppm grade by 2030 across Africa,’’. He stated that the continent must ensure that it brings in cleaner fuels like Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) for cleaner cooking to avoid a health crisis, adding that the future is very bright for refining in Africa.