Executive Secretary of the African Refiners & Distributors Association (ARA), Engr. Anibor Kragha has called for urgent upgrading of oil refineries and their associated storage and distribution infrastructure to prevent the number of premature deaths caused by air pollution in the developing countries.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), each year, air pollution causes seven million premature deaths with 600,000 being children.
“Not only do we need cleaner fuels but also cleaner vehicles to achieve the cleaner air that will prevent the premature deaths that developing economies around the world have experienced.
“To achieve that, we need to urgently attract the requisite financing needed to upgrade our refineries and complementary pipelines, depots and terminals, with rigorous analysis of the socio-economic and supply security benefits of each of these investments, which may often compete with each other,” Mr Anibor Kragha said in a press statement ahead of the ARA WEEK 2020 Conference that was postponed due to constraints imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
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The ARA Week is held annually in Cape Town, South Africa, in March. However, this year’s event is being held as an online virtual conference from October 5-7, 2020.
With reference to the contention by environmental lobbyists that Africa must leapfrog technology improvements to embrace alternative, less carbon-intensive solutions rather than invest in hydrocarbon fuels, ARA argues that such an approach fails to understand the complexities of African fuel and energy supply chains and could actually make the problem worse by delaying necessary investments to supply cleaner fuels across the continent.
Mr Kragha said: “Whether through product imports or refinery investment, Africa needs both project and trade financing for improved port and storage logistics to meet petroleum products shortfalls. But what is often forgotten is that, Africa needs to embrace the improvements to our vehicle maintenance and controls required to assure that the clean fuels supplied deliver the desired objective of cleaner air; with all the well-documented consequent benefits to public health and economic development.”
ARA has prioritised a two-step path to the future: first, clean fuels and second, climate change mitigation policies.
Mr. Kragha applauded the policies of his predecessor, Joël Dervain, in laying out the policies needed by the downstream (supply, refining, storage, distribution and marketing) sector of the oil industry.
Ultimately, an economic, efficient, safe, secure and sustainable supply chain for clean fuels is essential to address public health concerns, avoid energy poverty and drive industrial expansion and trade across Africa.
“The key is to define ‘sustainable’. Only then can we secure the financing for the projects required to upgrade our refineries and infrastructure and deliver efficient supply chains for clean fuels to let Africa catch up with the rest of the world on the climate change agenda,” he concluded.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com
