The modular mini-refinery: refining close to demand.
Chad exports its crude and imports its fuels. The classic answer — one large central refinery — is expensive, arrives late and serves a vast territory poorly. EnerTchad aims for the opposite: compact refining trains, mounted on chassis, deployed where demand actually is.
The Chadian paradox fits in one sentence: an oil-producing country that endures expensive fuels and supply disruptions. Crude leaves for export; petrol, diesel and LPG come back by truck, at import prices. In between, one link is missing: refining close to home.
The question is not whether Chad should refine — but how, at what scale, and at what pace of capital.
Why not one large refinery?
The classic industrial reflex is a single high-capacity refinery. In Chad, that model stacks up handicaps: a massive upfront capital requirement raised in one block, years of construction before the first litre, and domestic demand scattered across a territory twice the size of France — which a single plant can only serve with hundreds of kilometres of tanker trucks.
Sizing the tool to real demand, not to prestige: that is the starting point of the EnerTchad model.
500 to 2,000 barrels per day, on a skid
The modular mini-refinery reverses the equation. The base unit is a standardised processing train of 500 to 2,000 barrels per day, mounted on a skid — a transportable chassis. Need more capacity? Add a train. A module fails? Swap it out, with a target of back-in-service in under 24 hours, instead of a long plant shutdown.
Standardisation also changes the economics of maintenance: same parts, same skills, same procedures from one site to the next. It is one of the working themes of our Technology division’s R&D.
Relocatable: the asset that follows geography
"Relocatable" is not a technical footnote — it is insurance. If demand shifts, if a site proves badly placed, if a field declines: the unit is dismantled and redeployed. Where a fixed refinery turns a siting mistake into a write-off, the modular unit turns it into a relocation.
For a company in formation raising capital in stages, it is also a language investors understand: short investment tranches, each backed by a productive unit, rather than a single distant-horizon bet.
A large refinery serves a map. A fleet of mini-refineries serves a country.
Driven by data
Compact does not mean rudimentary. Each unit is designed to be instrumented and data-driven — SCADA supervision, predictive maintenance, AI-assisted yield optimisation — with the support of our Technology division. Few operators on site, many sensors: that is what makes small capacity viable.
What a topping unit yields, cut by cut
On a heavy crude like those of the Chadian basins, an atmospheric distillation yields within ranges well known from the literature — indicative, each crude having its own curve:
| Cut | Indicative range | Destiny at EnerTchad |
|---|---|---|
| LPG | 1–3% | LPG bottles — the wood-energy substitute |
| Naphtha / light gasoline | 5–12% | Gasoline base, per specifications |
| Middle distillates (kero, diesel) | 25–40% | The heart of the Chadian market — diesel first |
| Atmospheric residue | 45–65% | Heavy fuel oil and bitumen — the road in black |
Generic topping-plant ranges on heavy crudes (public sources); actual material balances will be published from the first run. This abundant residue is what grounds the company’s bitumen thesis.
What it changes at the pump
Refining close to demand shortens the chain between the well and the customer’s tank: fewer import kilometres, fewer shortages, and products sold at the ARSAT regulated price — including in areas that import logistics serve poorly. It is the heart of the "from source rock to the pump" promise, detailed on our Refining & Distribution page and quantified in our 2030 targets.
None of this is acquired yet: EnerTchad is a company in formation, and every capacity cited is a dated target, not an operating asset. But the direction is set — refine in Chad, at Chad’s scale.