During an economic forum in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and the West African nation of Equatorial Guinea came to an agreement on May 11 that brings the two countries together on a variety of business projects. One of those is an agreement that will help finance what will be the region’s largest terminal for oil storage.
Once the Bioko Oil Terminal is finished, it will also rank as the third-largest storage area on the continent of Africa. Bioko Island is approximately 20 miles off shore Central Africa’s western coast, with this specific project first beginning to take shape in the latter half of 2015. In late October of that year, Equatorial Guinea’s Ministry of Mines, Industry and Energy came to an agreement with the Strategic Fuel Fund, the Gunvor Group and the Taleveras Group shortly before also working out a pact with SacOil.
In conjunction with that agreement, Equatorial Guinea is moving ahead with its goal, first stated back in January, to become the 14th member of OPEC. The agreement with the Saudis will likely make that path much easier since the Kingdom effectively serves as the linchpin of this organization.
The Saudi investment will serve as an opportunity to ship oil to this strategic area, which has been shaky from a political perspective in a number of nations. However, the growth potential of the entire continent allows the Kingdom to have the infrastructure in place to make it easier to sell their oil.
The deal with Equatorial Guinea somewhat resembles the recent agreement the Saudis made to take over full ownership of the largest refinery in the United States, which was located in the state of Texas. In that case, the refining will help make it easier to keep their commodity flowing into the tightening American market.