African Continent's Key Minerals: Chinese Enterprises Revamp Power Plants, Nigeria Seeks to Rapidly Restart a 12-Year-Old Aluminum Smelter
¬ Nigeria plans to reconnect the ALSCON aluminum smelter to the national grid and complete the construction of its 330 kVA substation as soon as possible
¬ The 1.2 billion USD restoration agreement signed with China National Chemical Engineering Corporation (CNCEC) aims to restore power, with a generation capacity of up to 660 MW
¬ Despite a court ruling in 2022, the ownership of ALSCON remains in legal disputes between Russian Aluminum Company (Rusal) and the U.S.-Nigeria joint venture BFI
The Nigerian Ministry of Energy stated that Nigeria plans to accelerate the restart of the Nigerian Aluminum Smelting Company (ALSCON). Due to a shortage of natural gas supply, the company has been idle since 2013.
Energy Minister Adedayo Adedibu said the government plans to connect the power plant located in Akwa Ibom State to the national grid while accelerating the completion of a 330 kV substation originally designed to power it. He said that 90% of the substation and distribution line renovation work has been completed.
Adedibu added that the project is being implemented by Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) and other contractors, and will be supported by a "commercially viable agreement" with natural gas suppliers. "Natural gas supply remains the main challenge that caused ALSCON to stop operating in March 2013," he said.
In 2007, Nigeria sold the majority stake in ALSCON to Russian Aluminum Company (Rusal) for 205 million USD under its public enterprise privatization plan. Rusal claims to own 85% of ALSCON. However, this transaction was legally challenged by the U.S.-Nigeria consortium Bancorp Financial Investment (BFI). BFI had previously made a higher 410 million USD acquisition offer in 2004, but it eventually collapsed due to payment issues.
In July 2022, the Nigerian Supreme Court ordered the Public Enterprise Bureau (BPE) to revoke the acquisition by Rusal and accept BFI's offer. Despite the ruling, legal disputes over the smelter's ownership continue.
Rusal has submitted the dispute to the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA). Meanwhile, BFI signed a 1.2 billion USD contract with China National Chemical Engineering Corporation (CNCEC) in November 2024 to comprehensively renovate the power plant that supplies power to the smelter.
According to Adedibu, this renovation will add about 540 MW of electricity to the Nigerian national grid, up to a maximum of 660 MW.
The minister said that restarting the factory could create up to 15,000 direct and indirect jobs for Nigerian youth. He also added that full operation of ALSCON would provide domestic aluminum for local industries, saving millions of dollars for Nigeria.
Source: ecofinagency
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1847130041015340/
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