Founded in 1961, the SAR (Société Africaine de Raffinage) started up on 31st October 1963 and was inaugurated on 27th January 1964 by his Excellency, Léopold Sédar Senghor, President of the Republic of Senegal. Since that date, the Société Africaine de Raffinage has supplied Butane gas, Super and Regular gasoline, Kerosene, Gasoil, Diesel and Fuel oil forthe domestic market in Senegal.

The SAR refinery and facilities cover an area of 32 hectares and have been constantly upgraded since 1961. Its crude capacity has doubled since start-up, from 0.6 to 1.2 MTPA.

The SAR gained its first ISO 9001 certification under the 2000 standard and has recently achieved ISO 9001 certification under the 2015 standard.

Sustainable development: a daily challenge at the SAR

Our workforce

The SAR is a corporate citizen that participates in the economic and social development of Senegal. We are aware of our mission and particularly sensitive to the issues related to ouractivity (environmental protection, sustainable development, permanent social dialogue with all stakeholders, etc.)

Supply

Most of the SAR’s imports of crude oil come from Nigeria (Bonny Light, Erha…). This crude is transported by sea in 100,000 T tankers and transferred to the SAR’s crude tank farm by a 5.6km sea-line. The crude oil tank farm consists of seven tanks with a total capacity of 220,000 m3

Production

Crude oil requires refining in several units at the SAR in order to produce commercially viable products (butane gas, gasoline, kerosene, gasoil, diesel oil, fuel oil).

Refining units include:

– Atmospheric and Vacuum distillation

– Reforming

– Kerosene treatment (Merox).

Safety

The safety of its personnel and facilities has always been paramount for the SAR.

A concrete and dynamic safety policy including, among other things, the installation of safetyequipment and the continuous training of personnel, ensures that safety is continuallyreinforced and improved. This year saw the SAR initiate a major project to automate access to the refinery and restricted areas, and a time-management system for its employees.

Quality Assurance

The SAR’s laboratory is equipped to test to national and international refining standards. Throughout the refining process, and prior to distribution to depots, products are rigorously analysed and the resulting quality certificate guarantees the control and monitoring of the refining process, and certifies the quality of the products supplied to the market.

Our projects

The SAR 2.0 project will bring about the much desired energy revolution and includes infrastructure projects such as:

– Construction of a new, dedicated sea-line for white products;

– Construction a new sea-line for crude and fuel oil, to replace the existing line.

The sole crude oil treated will be the Senegalese crude Sangomar, ensuring that all the products produced by the refinery will meet the new AFRI6 specifications.

THE FUTURE OF THE SAR

Increasing the refining capacity and adapting refining units to treat Senegalese Crude.

The SAR was established in 1963, following the independence of Senegal, to ensure the country’s supply of petroleum products. To this end, and in order to be able to treat the new Senegalese crude in the short and medium term, the SAR must invest in a significant programme of technical, technological and logistical modifications.

SUPPLY

With the discovery of Senegalese oil and gas reserves, and the modifications necessary to the SAR refinery to treat them, the following medium-term projects are being studied :

– Construction a new sea-line for crude and fuel oil.

– Construction of a dedicated sea-line for White products (BCM) to accommodate Gasoil, Kerosene and Super gasoline cargoes at Mbao (Senstock).

– Doubling the capacity of the butane berth sea-line to secure the country’s supply.

– Safeguarding and rerouting the finished product pipeline to the depot, following the introduction of RWT (Refinery Wastewater Treatment).

– Construction of a 50,000 m3 floating-roof crude tank, a 4,500 m3 gasoil tank, a 4,500 m3fuel oil tank and a 3000 m3 gasoline tank.

PRODUCTION

To meet the AFRI4 and AFRI5 standards, and in order to treat the Senegalese crude, the following plant modifications will be implemented in short to medium term at the SAR:

– Increasing the distillation capacity from 1.2 to 1.5 MTPA by adding a Preflash unit during the statuary shutdown in 2021.

– Increasing the Reforming capacity from 14 to 18T/h (to be compatible with the increased butane production).

– Construction of a Gasoil hydrodesulphurisation plant (HDS), which would allow fortreatment of higher sulphur crudes (cheaper to buy) and also to meet demand for low sulphur gasoil (new AFRI6 specifications).

– Further increasing the distillation capacity in the long-term, from 1.5 to 3.5 MTPA to meet the needs of both the Senegalese and part of the sub-regional markets. This new configuration would enable the refinery to treat Senegalese crude mixed with Erhacrude in the ratio 75 % Petrosen crude to 25 % Erha crude.