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Tema LNG seen receiving its first cargo soon

GHANA TEMA LNG Terminal Co. (TLTC), the owner As of press time, neither Shell nor GNPC had
of a new LNG terminal at the Ghanaian port of divulged any additional information on the tim-
Tema, may be able to start commercial opera- ing of the terminal’s launch. Platts noted, though,
tions before the end of this month. that the spokesman’s words were in line with pre-
The terminal, which consists of a floating vious reports indicating that Tema LNG would
regasification unit (FRU) and a separate float- take delivery of its first cargo by the end of the
ing storage unit (FSU), has yet to come online. first quarter of 2021.
However, a spokesman for the project told S&P The terminal’s FRU and FSU have both been
Global Platts last week that the terminal would moored at a new jetty built by West Africa Gas.
be “mechanically ready” to take delivery of its The regasification unit is capable of handling
first shipment by the end of March. 1.7mn tonnes per year (tpy) of LNG, and the
As such, he said, Ghana National Petroleum storage vessel boosts the facility’s total storage
Co. (GNPC) will soon be in a position to import capacity to 145,000-160,000 cubic metres.
its first cargo of LNG under a long-term supply TLTC’s owners are Helios Investment Part-
contract with an affiliate of Royal Dutch Shell ners and Africa Infrastructure Investment Man-
(UK/Netherlands). He cautioned, though, that agers, both based in the UK. The partners have
the LNG cargo’s arrival date had not yet been awarded a contract for the operation and main-
fixed. “We are waiting for Shell, the supplier, and tenance of the terminal to Reganosa of Spain.
GNPC, as the off-taker, to decide and confirm Under this contract, Reganosa must also operate
the delivery date for their first cargo to arrive at and maintain the 16-inch (406-mm) riser, sub-
the terminal,” he said. sea pipeline and onshore 6-km pipeline used to
The spokesman, who was not named, did not pump the regasified LNG to onshore facilities.™
reveal the size or price of Tema LNG’s first cargo.

Attah urges NLNG to consider

expansion on a larger scale

NIGERIA NIGERIA LNG (NLNG) should consider more North field expansion project will operate on a
ambitious plans for expansion, according to different scale, adding nearly 30mn tpy of new
Tony Attah, the consortium’s managing director. capacity and bringing the country’s total produc-
Speaking at a recent industry conference tion capacity up from 77mn tpy to 126mn tpy.
hosted by the Nigerian Gas Association (NGA), Qatar’s ambitious moves indicate that NLNG
Attah reported that NLNG had already benefited ought to aim higher, Attah commented. He said
the country’s economy by generating more than the consortium was ready to work with Nigeria’s
$100bn in revenues, $38bn in tax receipts and government to support efforts to expand both
$35bn in dividends. These figures are sure to gas production and domestic gasification.
grow once the group completes the Train 7 pro- Train 7 will not be the end of expansion
ject, adding another production train to its gas work at NLNG. The Nigerian government has
liquefaction plant on Bonny Island and raising said before that the Bonny Island liquefaction
its overall production capacity to 30mn tonnes plant may eventually have as many as 12 trains
per year (tpy), he said. in operation, and Mele Kyari, the group man-
Nevertheless, he said, Nigeria – and NLNG, aging director of Nigerian National Petroleum
its only LNG producer – should learn from the Corp. (NNPC), told reporters late last year that
example set by Qatar. He noted that the Middle NLNG’s shareholders were already holding dis-
Eastern state had begun producing LNG in 1997, cussions on the construction of Train 8.
just two years before NLNG’s first production Equity in NLNG is divided between state-
train came online. Since then, he said, Qatar has owned NNPC, with 49%; Royal Dutch Shell
become the biggest LNG producer in the world, (UK/Netherlands), with 25.6%; Total (France),
raising its total LNG production capacity to with 15%, and Eni (Italy), with 10.4%. The con-
77mn tpy. Nigeria, by contrast, has only pushed sortium’s members made a final investment deci-
output up to 22.5mn tpy. sion (FID) on the Train 7 project last year. This
The gap between the two countries is evident initiative envisions the construction of a seventh
in the difference between their expansion pro- production train that can turn out 4.2mn tpy,
jects, he added. NLNG’s Train 7 project calls for as well as the debottlenecking of existing trains,
raising the Bonny Island plant’s capacity from which will add another 3.4mn tpy of capacity.. ™
22.5mn tpy to 30mn tpy, he noted, while Qatar’s

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