Downstream Sector

The government’s energy policy is to further diversify the energy sector by promoting the establishment of downstream industries that maximise the multiplier effects and value added through the creation of linkages between the Energy Sector and the rest of the economy.  In this regard, the Government has taken a policy decision that proposals for projects must include an element whereby their outputs are utilised to produce a value added product that can be either exported for higher value or used in local processes.  This applies evenly for projects that produce first stage products such as ammonia and methanol as well as for completely new products, such as aluminium.

The result has been the proposal of several projects that offer to:

• add value to first stage chemicals such as ammonia by going further downstream into products such as Melamine and Urea Ammonium Nitrate (UAM) (MHTL UAM);
• take the country’s steel output to the next stage from the current production of round steel to the production of flat steel that has many more applications (Essar);
• produce raw aluminium that will then be used as the basis for supplying local plants that will convert this into higher value-added aluminium products (Alutrint).
• produce polyethylene that the sets the stage for the development of a plastics-based industry in the country (Westlake Ethylene/Polyethylene)