SNPC: Financing deal for Congo pipeline by 2015

The director general of the National Petroleum Company (SNPC) of the Republic of the Congo, Jerome Koko, told TOGY last week that the company plans to have secured financing on its long-awaited pipeline project from the coastal town of Pointe-Noire to the capital Brazzaville by August 2015, though SNPC has yet to secure its partners in the project.

The cost of the project is unknown, yet according to industry sources the price tag is expected to significant given the difficult terrain between the country’s two largest cities. The pipeline would carry refined products from the country’s only refinery in Pointe-Noire to Brazzaville. Currently, product travels by road and rail, which in the latter case can take up to 15 days to cover the full 560 kilometers.

According to unnamed sources, Russia’s Gazprom has showed interest in the project. However Koko told TOGY that SNPC has “not had any offers or interest of other parties that would like to join” the infrastructure project.

In April 2014, Russia’s minister of state, Youri Senturin, told local press in Brazzaville that Russia intends to support the Republic of the Congo in any efforts to build infrastructure related to the production and transport of energy.