Page 15 - FSUOGM Week 01 2021

FSUOGM NRG FSUOGM

DMEA: Mozambique militancy on the rise per year Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), was
France’s Total has withdrawn workers from completed in October.
Mozambique LNG, following an attack by sus- Italy is contracted to receive 8 bcm per year
pected Islamists within the $20bn export pro- of gas from TAP, while Bulgaria and Greece have
ject’s concession area. agreed to take 1 bcm per year each.
Militants with suspected links to Islamic State All eyes will now be on the binding phase
have been battling government forces in north- of a market test for TAP’s potential expansion
ern Mozambique for three years, with attacks to 20 bcm per year, scheduled to take place in
having grown more frequent over the past year. the summer of 2021. There are questions about
The latest assault on January 1 was on the village whether Europe will need this extra supply, given
of Quitunda, where Total is relocating commu- a projected decline in demand as a result of the
nities as it builds export facilities and other infra- energy transition and ample alternative sources
structure. It was repelled by government forces. of supply.
The fighting is the closest yet to Total’s con- One such source is the Krk LNG terminal in
struction camp and the first attack to happen Croatia, which received its first LNG tanker on
within the Mozambique LNG concession area. January 1. The terminal has an import capacity
It occurred under 1 km from an airstrip that the of 2.6 bcm per year and will serve customers not
company has built to serve the project. only in Croatia but in some neighbouring coun- Southeast Europe
In other news, the board of Saudi petrochem- tries as well. Some 80% of this capacity has been
icals giant SABIC has backed the issue of $1.2bn leased, mostly to Qatar. started importing
in dividends from earnings in the second half of Greece, meanwhile, plans to build a second natural gas from
2020. The move comes after the company, which LNG terminal in Alexandroupolis that will be
was bought by national oil producer Saudi Ara- capable of bringing ashore some 5.5 bcm per two new sources
mco last summer, returned to profit in the three year of gas. North Macedonia’s government
months ending September 30, 2020, after incur- said earlier this week that it wanted to take a at the start of
ring three straight quarterly losses. 10% stake in the project. The project’s existing
Meanwhile in Nigeria, Waltersmith Petro- shareholders are Greece’s Copelouzos energy this year
man Oil has secured 2,000-4,000 barrels per day group, as well as DEPA Commercial, the coun-
(bpd) in oil supplies for its modular refinery in try’s main gas supplier, and Monaco-based LNG
Imo State under a deal with Seplat Petroleum. carrier owner GasLog. Bulgaria’s Bulgartransgaz
The oil will be sourced from the Ohaja South and Greece’s DESFA are also set to participate as
field at the OML53 permit. investors.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari
launched the 5,000 bpd Waltersmith refinery in If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
late November. The facility also receives oil from Europe’s oil and gas sector then please click here for
Waltersmith’s own Ibigwe marginal oilfield. NewsBase’s EurOil Monitor.

If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping FSU: Rosneft’s Arctic plays
the downstream sector of Africa and the Middle East, Rosneft closed the sale of a 10% interest in its
then please click here for NewsBase’s DMEA Monitor. Vostok Oil venture in the Russian Arctic to
commodities trader Trafigura in late December,
EurOil: Europe gains import options thereby taking the ambitious project one step
Southeast Europe started importing natural gas closer to realisation.
from two new sources at the start of this year, The price Trafigura paid for the stake has
cutting into the market share of Russia’s Gaz- not been disclosed. But given the resources at
prom, the region’s main supplier. play – Rosneft has estimated Vostok Oil’s liquid
BP announced late on December 31 that the reserves at 6bn barrels – this likely represents the
Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) pipeline network biggest foreign investment in Russia’s oil indus-
was now fully operational. SGC consists of three try in years.
pipelines that run from Azerbaijan through the Vostok Oil comprises a group of oilfields in
South Caucasus and Turkey and into Southeast Russia’s far north. Rosneft has pinned its hopes
Europe, carrying gas from the offshore BP-oper- for keeping output levels steady over the coming
ated Shah Deniz 2 (SD2) field. Construction of decades on these sites, as its older deposits fur-
the corridor’s last section, the 10bn cubic metre ther south are nearly depleted.

Week 01 06•January•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P15