Page 7 - GLNG Week 26

GLNG afRiCa GLNG
Arzew explosion unlikely to hit Algerian flows
PERfoRmanCE
AN explosion was reported at Sonatrach’s GL1Z liquefaction unit on July 1, the Algerian state- owned company announced. e company said the Mutual Assistance Plan (MAP) had been triggered for the plant at Arzew – the country’s oldest – and it had rapidly regained control of the situation.
No one died as a result of the explosion, but two people were injured and taken to hospital in Oran. Sonatrach said the incident would not have an impact on GL1Z’s production capacity.
Images and video on social media show a major re at the GL1Z facility.
e plant was commissioned in 1978 and, according to the International Group of LNG Importers (GIIGNL), has capacity of 7.9mn tonnes per year (tpy), from six trains. It also has three tanks, with storage capacity of 300,000 cubic metres.
There are two other liquefaction sites at Arzew, with total capacity of 12.9mn tpy, and another site at Arzew, with 4.5mn tpy. e coun- try exported 10.1mn tpy of LNG in 2018, down from the 12.34mn tpy from the previous year – substantially below Algeria’s nameplate capacity.
Production has been declining for some time, in 2009, output was 15.68mn tpy. As such, prob- lems at GL1Z are unlikely to have an impact on exports.
In 2004, an explosion at Skikda’s LNG port killed around 30 people and injured another 70. At this point, Algeria was the second largest LNG exporter in the world.
A 2016 report for the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (OIES), by Ali Aissaoui, called for Sonatrach to scrap the GL1Z and GL2Z plants. Operating these plants at low levels increases the unit cost of production, reducing the Algerian state’s share of revenues. ™
More gas lined up for Tortue LNG
PRojECts & ComPaniEs
BP has had success at its Greater Tortue Ahmeyim-1 (GTA-1) well, offshore Senegal. Kosmos Energy, which is working with the UK-based super-major on the area, announced the result on July 1, saying the well was expected to be a future producer for the Tortue LNG pro- ject. e result will be used to optimise develop- ment drilling plans.
New York and London-listed Kosmos said the GTA-1 was drilled on the eastern anticline. It found 30 metres of net gas pay in a high-quality Albian reservoir. It was drilled in 2,500 metres of water, 10 km inboard from the Guembuel-1A and Tortue-1 wells. It reached a total depth of 4,884 metres, with drilling carried out by the Ensco DS-12 rig.
Next up for the rig is the Yakaar-2 appraisal well, also in Senegal, which should be spudded in the coming weeks. It will then go on to drill the Orca-1 exploration well in Mauritania, late in the third quarter.
“ e GTA-1 well con rms our expectation that the gas resource at Greater Tortue Ahmeyim will continue to grow over time and could lead to further expansion of this world-scale 10mn
[tonne per year] LNG project,” said Kosmos’ chairman and CEO, Andrew Inglis.
The official went on to note that Kosmos’ plans to reduce its stake in the project to 10% had “received considerable interest from the indus- try, with initial bids expected over the summer, and transaction conclusion anticipated by year end”.
Kosmos’ chief exploration officer, Tracey Henderson, talking at the Africa E&P Summit in May, had said the company wanted to remain a partner in the Tortue LNG project “but we want to reduce our involvement to a level that’s sus- tainable. Reducing our stake will cover our costs but also allow us to stay in it.”
e Tortue LNG project is due to produce rst gas in the rst half of 2022, with capacity of 2.5mn tpy under the rst phase, which could expand to 10mn tpy. ere are also plans for another two hubs, each with up to 10mn tpy of throughput, which could follow.
Under the December 2016 deal that saw BP buy into Kosmos’ Senegal and Mauritania assets, the two companies also agree to work together across the broader West African region.™
Week 26 04•July•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P7