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The company also pointed out that it still had six including 485mn barrels of crude oil and 160mn
months to uphold its commitments before for- boe of natural gas.
feiting its stake in RSSD. As such, it is, FAR will RSSD hopes to begin extracting oil from San-
continue to look into the possibility of selling all gomar in 2023. Woodside said on June 23 that it
or part of its stake in the project and work on still expected to meet this deadline. ™
reducing its own expenses.
The RSSD joint venture includes PetroSen,
the national oil company (NOC) of Sene-
gal, Cairn Energy of the UK and Australia’s
Woodside, as well as FAR. Equity in the group is
split between Woodside, the operator, with 35%;
Cairn, with 40%; FAR, with 15%; and PetroSen,
with 10%.
The Sangomar block includes three sepa-
rate fields – Rufisque, Sangomar Offshore and
Sangomar Deep Offshore – that give the RSSD
joint venture its name. The partners discovered
oil there in 2014 and have determined that the
block holds an estimated 645mn barrels of
oil equivalent (boe) in recoverable reserves, The RSSD group found oil at Sangomar in 2014 (Image: Cairn Energy)

UKEF set to back Mozambique LNG

ETHIOPIA THE UK’s export credit agency UK Export Together they arranged $15bn in financing
Finance (UKEF) is looking to provide up to for the project’s first phase in late May, accord-
$800mn in financing for the Total-operated ing to Bloomberg. Around 20 commercial banks
Mozambique LNG project, Reuters reported on are expected to take part and are due to sign an
June 25 citing sources. agreement before the end of June, paving the
The UKEF listed the project as a potential way for a final investment decision (FID) to be
candidate for investment last August, the news taken.
agency said. The agency has declined to com- Mozambique LNG is one of several LNG
ment on its possible support, citing commercial export ventures under development off the East
confidentiality. African nation’s coast. Another one is Rovuma
Mozambique LNG is set to produce 13mn LNG, led by ExxonMobil, which anticipates
tonnes per year (tpy) of LNG, using gas from the reaching an FID next year. That plant will pro-
Golfinho and Atum fields in the Rovuma Basin. duce up to 7.6mn tpy of LNG starting in 2025.
The project, which carries a total cost of $23bn, Exxon is also involved in the Eni-led Coral
is due to start exporting by 2024. South project, which is due to enter service in
Total and others have looked to shift their 2022. It will have a capacity of 3.4mn tpy. ™
focus from oil to gas, banking on expected
strong growth in demand for the latter over the
coming decades. They have also promoted gas
as a transition fuel, as its use results in fewer
emissions than oil. But environmentalists are
unconvinced, and oppose UKEF’s support for
Mozambique LNG, according to Reuters.
“By backing this massive fossil fuel project,
the UK would undermine their credibility as
they prepare to host the UN climate negotiations
next year,” Alex Doukas, programme director
at campaign group Oil Change International,
told the agency. “The UK should never finance
another fossil fuel project if they are serious
about being a climate leader.”
Total operates Mozambique LNG with a
26.5% stake, while its partners are Japan’s Mitsui
E&P (20%), India’s ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL)
(10%) and BPRL Ventures Mozambique (10%),
local investors ENH Rovuma (15%) and Beas
Rovuma Energy Mozambique (10%) and Thai-
land’s PTTEP (8.5%). Mozambique LNG will liquefy gas from Atum and Golfinho (Image: Total)

Week 27 01•July•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P13