Page 4 - GLNG Week 31

GLNG COMMENTARY GLNG
Future threats to African LNG
With hackers targeting African energy operators, LNG producers should look for ways to fend off cybersecurity threats
PERFORMANCE
WHAT:
With hackers targeting African energy operators, LNG producers should look for ways to fend off cybersecurity threats.
WHY:
At the same time, a hacking group is looking for ways to exploit the vulnerabilities of African utilities.
WHAT NEXT:
Senegal’s far-reaching gas development plans demonstrate the need for African producers to develop cybersecurity strategies now.
AFRICA stands to bene t handsomely from the global trend towards replacing petroleum prod- ucts and coal with cleaner-burning natural gas. Likewise, it is in a good position to take advan- tage of the growing interest in gas liquefaction, which allows producers and traders to move gas to nearly any location in the world in the form of LNG.
Indeed, Africa is fast becoming one of the leading destinations for investment in the LNG trade. Rystad Energy recently noted that Africa was set to absorb more than a quarter of all the money committed to LNG projects this year.
In a note sent to Rigzone in late June, Pranav Joshi, an analyst on the research consultan- cy’s upstream team, reported that greenfield LNG investments were likely to rise to nearly $103bn in 2019. He also indicated that two African mega-projects would account for a dis- proportionately large share of the new funding commitments.
Joshi noted that the US company Anadarko had made a nal investment decision (FID) in favour of Area 1, a $15.6 bn LNG scheme in Mozambique, earlier in June. He also pointed out that the US super-major ExxonMobil was likely to make an FID on Area 4, another Mozambican initiative that carries a price tag of $14.7bn, before the end of the year.
Together, these two projects will absorb $31.3bn, equivalent to nearly 30% of the total
sum of this year’s total green eld investment commitments. ey will also generate bene ts for the Mozambican economy at large, since they will spur investments in infrastructure and in related industries.
But they could also make the country vulner- able to a new threat.
Targeting oil and gas
Dragos, an industrial security provider, reported last week that a new hacking group known as Hexane had stepped up e orts to target energy operators in Africa and the Middle East since its emergence in 2018.
According to Dragos, the group has been working harder in recent months to gain access to the networks of African and Middle Eastern telecommunications operators. Casey Brooks, one of the rm’s senior adversary hunters, told TechCrunch that these attacks could serve as a “stepping stone” towards gaining control over the systems used by oil and gas companies work- ing in these regions.
He explained that the hackers were focusing on “devices, rmware or telecommunications networks” in oil and gas companies’ supply chains in the hope of nding new ways to com- promise them. If the group succeeds on this front, he said, it will gain the ability to break into oil and gas operators’ internal networks through the back door.
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 31 08•August•2019