Page 15 - AfrOil Week 27 2022

AfrOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES AfrOil

Nigeria’s UTM Offshore hopes to

make FID on Yoho FLNG in Q2-2023

NIGERIA JULIUS Rone, the managing director and CEO FLNG project, plus another $3bn for the second
of Nigeria’s UTM Offshore, has said his com- phase.
pany is looking to make a final investment deci- UTM Offshore will be installing the FLNG
sion (FID) on a floating LNG (FLNG) project at vessel for ExxonMobil (US) and state-owned
the Yoho offshore oilfield in the second quarter Nigerian National Petroleum Co. Ltd (NNPC
of 2023. Ltd), the two shareholders in the Yoho oilfield,
Rone had said previously that UTM Offshore which lies within the OML 104 licence area.
hoped to reach the FID stage by the fourth quar- ExxonMobil and NNPC began extracting crude
ter of 2022. On June 29, though, he told LNG from Yoho in 2003 and have been flaring asso-
Prime that the company was now aiming for the ciated gas or re-injecting it into the reservoir to
second quarter of next year. maximise oil output. Now that the site is mature,
He did not comment directly on the rea- however, they see the FLNG project as a means
sons for the delay but reported that UTM Off- of changing course and commercialising the
shore had not signed a front-end engineering field’s gas as oil yields decline.
and design (FEED) contract with Japan’s JGC, As of last year, Yoho was still yielding about
US-based KBR and South Korea’s Samsung 35,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil. ExxonMobil
Heavy Industries (SHI) in April as expected. The and NNPC Ltd have been using a floating pro-
parties are still discussing the terms of the deal, duction, storage and off-loading (FPSO) vessel
he said, without revealing whether the addi- to develop the offshore site. ™
tional time was related to his company’s recent
decision to raise the production capacity of the
FLNG unit to 1.52mn tonnes per year (tpy), up
by 26% on the original figure. He also indicated
that UTM Offshore had made progress in talks
with the African Export-Import Bank (Afrex-
imbank) on financing for the FLNG project.
The parties signed a memorandum of under-
standing (MoU) last year and have now moved
on to signing a heads of terms (HoT) document,
he told LNG Prime.
“The project preparation facility means that
Afreximbank is committing funding on feasibil-
ity studies, such as geotechnical studies and oth-
ers as a commitment of the bank to the project
prior to FID and financial close,” he commented.
Under the MoU, the bank is supposed to pro-
vide $2bn in financing for the first phase of the The FLNG will process associated gas from the Yoho field (Image: ExxonMobil)

Duport modular refinery set for launch

NIGERIA AS progress continues on large state facilities, “The plan is that on July 18, [the Department
Nigeria is set to receive a small boost to refin- of Petroleum Resources (DPR)] will come and
ing capacity in the form of a 2,500 barrel per day do the final check in terms of giving us approval
(bpd) modular unit in Edo State this month. to introduce hydrocarbon into the refinery. So
During a visit to facilities developed by the between now and the end of July, this refinery
Duport Midstream Co., Simbi Wabote, execu- in addition to the one we have in Ibigwe will
tive secretary of the Nigerian Content Develop- become operational,” he said.
ment and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), said Given that the DPR was scrapped in favour of
that the refinery at Egbokor in the Orhionmwon new institutions, it is likely Wabote was referring
local government area would begin operations to the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream
by the end of the month. Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).

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