Liberia gears up for commissioning of new refinery

Conex Group JV Ltd.’s Conex Petroleum Group Inc. is progressing with a plan to install a 10,000-b/d modular refinery at Conex Petroleum Service Inc.’s existing petroleum storage terminal in Monrovia, Liberia.

A factory acceptance test for the modular refinery remains on schedule for this week, VFuels LLC—the unit’s Houston-based manufacturer—said in a post to its official LinkedIn page.

Launched in April 2019, the modular refinery comes as part of the second-phase development of Conex’s 55,000-tonnes petroleum storage terminal commissioned in 2016 at Monrovia, Conex said in a May 2, 2019, release.

Alongside helping to ensure job creation and petroleum product sufficiency for Liberia, the refinery also will create additional revenue through royalties to partner Liberian Petroleum Refinery Co. (LPRC), taxes to the government, and community development projects, said Cherif M. Abdallah, Conex’s chairman and chief executive officer.

While independent Liberian-owned Conex did not disclose a definitive timeframe for commissioning of the new project, the refinery previously was scheduled for startup within 24 months of the project’s April 2019 launch, according to reports from local Liberian media.

Now responsible for storing and handling petroleum and petroleum products, LPRC said in its 2011-16 strategic plan issued in October 2012 that it intended to conduct feasibility studies for construction of a 50,000-b/d refinery in Liberia (OGJ Online, June 21, 2016). The country relies exclusively on fuel imports from surrounding regions as it is without a refinery until startup of Conex.