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The Cameroon state oil company said it had reached an agreement with independent producer Perenco to buy a 1.8 million barrel floating oil storage and loading terminal and erect it in the Rio del Rey basin, where it will help oil companies cut costs.
The National Hydrocarbons Corporation (SNH) said the terminal would replace two ageing ones by November and would enable oil producers operating in the basin to save about 225 billion CFA francs ($420.2 million) over the next 15 years. About 90 percent of the central African nation's crude is currently produced in the Rio del Rey basin.
The terminal will be operated by Cameroon Oil Terminal, a venture owned 51 percent by Perenco, 44 percent by SNH and 5 percent by Switzerland-based ABC Maritime Group. The parties did not say how much the new terminal will cost.
Cameroon became a modest oil producer in 1977, and its output peaked at 185,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 1986. Output has since declined to about 60,000 bpd in 2011 but is projected to rise again to 90,000 this year after Perenco and Addax Petroleum, a unit of Chinese state-owned Sinopec, reopened and improved production at some mature fields acquired from Total E&P in 2011.
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