"Many of the region's refineries have suffered from widespread underinvestment in recent years, which has led to low utilization rates and maintenance issues," says Fitch Solutions, a consultant on sub-Saharan Africa's oil and gas sector.
The consultant describes the need for greater investment in refineries in the region, and even new refineries, for the region to be able to take advantage of over 125 billion barrels in proven reserves, of which just over one million is refined in the region.
"Several refining projects are under evaluation or have already been launched, which will help to reduce the need for imports of refined oil in the medium term", he says, pointing to the cases of Nigeria, Angola and Uganda as the only countries in which the capacity to refining will increase.
