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Liberia opens new fuel oil storage facility

Liberia opened a new heavy fuel oil (HFO) storage plant in mid-August to provide additional flexibility for the country’s fuel oil-fired power generation plants.

The new facility, located on Bushrod Island, close to the capital Monrovia, will have storage capacity of more than 5 million gallons (158,730 barrels) of HFO. It was constructed by Chinese infrastructure developer China Harbor Engineering Co. (CHEC), with funding provided by the World Bank.

CHEC was contracted by state power group Liberia Electricity Corp. (LEC) to rehabilitate antiquated pipeline links and storage assets at nearby docks and at LEC’s facilities on the island.

The US$10 million funding provided by the World Bank was given to the Liberian Government’s Electricity System Enhancement Project (LESEP), and has been used to replace an abandoned 16,700 barrel HFO tank and two 1,000 barrel diesel tanks on the island, and to clean up oil spillage which had occurred within the perimeter of the facility.

The fuel is needed by LEC as feedstock for its three HFO-fired power generation units, two 10-MW capacity plants and one 18-MW plant, which were built since 2006. These were financed by the World Bank, the Liberian government and Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA).

As well as HFO-fired power, LEC also has several high-speed diesel-fired (HSD) power units with total installed generation capacity of 9.6 MW at four sub-stations. These plants were installed with multilateral finance provided by Ghana, the EU and USAID. Other HSD units have been also been installed, bringing the total installed capacity to 22 MW, of which LEC says 16-18 MW is currently operational.

The period prior to 2006 was beset by civil war in Liberia, which saw destruction of infrastructure and damage to communications links. LEC’s present HFO-fired power capacity network replaced the plants and infrastructure destroyed in this conflict.

In bringing the new Bushrod facility in operation, LEC is motivated by a need to upgrade delivery rates at HFO-fired power units to improve electrification rates in the country.

Liberia has chronically poor electricity connectivity and supply, especially in rural communities, which is widely seen as hampering wider economic recovery.

Therefore a programme to improve electrification rates is under way, which will focus on a combination of developing fossil fuel and renewable power generation plants.

With regard to the new Bushrod Island plant, stability of HFO supply is critical to the efficient functioning of fossil fuel-fired power in the country. In addition to the new storage facility, Liberia is receiving institutional funding to support other new energy infrastructure projects and revive its economy.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) provided loan finance of US$23 million for the Gbedin Falls hydroelectric power project (HPP).

Monrovia has also implemented a second programme, the Accelerated Electricity Expansion Project (LACEEP), which will build on the successful implementation of the Bushrod plant to ensure greater availability of energy to end-users and continue progress towards recovery.

The stability of fossil-fired power generation to balance Liberia’s volatile hydro power availability gives HFO a key role in Liberia’s regeneration.
Consumption of HFO by LEC will likely increase as the new facility begins operations, and new HFO-fired power capacity may also be developed on the back of the successful installation of the Bushrod plant.

Other oil storage and distribution projects, such as Liberian Petroleum Refining Co.’s (LPRC’s) US$22.4 million product storage terminal rehabilitation and expansion programme, which was cancelled in November 2014, could also be revived.

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Liberia opens new fuel oil storage facility

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