Page 18 - DMEA Week 02 2021

DMEA LNG DMEA

Analyst: LNG construction sites

key to fighting in Mozambique

MOZAMBIQUE CONSTRUCTION sites for onshore facilities saying by The Africa Report.
related to a large-scale LNG project appear to be Meanwhile, Raymakers continued, Mozam-
The focal point of the a focal point of the campaign by Islamist insur- bique’s government has not yet formulated a
attacks seems to be the gents to seize control of Mozambique’s northern comprehensive strategy for pushing the insur-
construction projects. Cabo Delgado Province, according to a repre- gents back. And since President Filipe Nyusi has
sentative of the Verisk Maplecroft consultancy. indicated that he is open to foreign assistance,
Alexandre Raymakers, a senior Africa but not in the form of “boots on the ground,”
analyst for the consultancy, commented ear- attempts to combat ASWJ are likely to be
lier this week that troops affiliated with Ahlu time-consuming, he said.
Sunna Wa-Jamo (ASWJ) were working to tie In the meantime, he remarked, “the civilian
Mozambican troops down in areas near the population is bearing the brunt” of the fighting
LNG construction sites on the Afungi Pen- in northern Mozambique. Civilians are also
insula. Even though these high-value sites being forced to pay taxes to ASWJ to fund the
are already strongly defended, the armed insurgents, he noted.
forces, known as Forças Armadas de Defesa France’s Total is currently working to build an
de Moçambique (FADM), are working to keep onshore natural gas liquefaction plant and asso-
them out of the insurgents’ hands, he said. ciated facilities on the Afungi Peninsula for the
As a result, he commented, ASWJ’s other Mozambique LNG project. The complex will use
units have been able to step up their efforts gas from an offshore block known as Area 1 to
to take control of larger towns in Cabo Del- produce LNG for export. The French company
gado. Since most FADM troops are not in puts the total cost of this project at $20bn and has
those towns, the Islamist group has been able already arranged to cover most of this sum with
to “create a narrative that the government $14.9bn in loans from commercial and develop-
can’t defend its own people,” he was quoted as ment banks. ™

Qatar hires McDermott for

LNG FEED work

QATAR QATARGAS has handed a front-end engineer- (NFE) project, which will ramp up the coun-
ing design (FEED) contract to McDermott Inter- try’s liquefaction capacity from 77mn to 110mn
The US company national for the North Field South (NFS) project, tonnes per year (tpy). This first expansion stage is
did not disclose the which represents the second stage in Qatar’s plan expected to begin flowing gas by 2025.
contract’s value. to expand its LNG production capacity over the NFS will raise output further to 126mn tpy
next decade. by the late 2020s. The contract with McDermott
The contract covers the replication of five off- marks the first major award by Qatar for this
shore wellhead platforms, McDermott said on stage. The US company did not disclose its value.
January 6, noting that work at its office in Doha For NFE, Qatar Petroleum hired Air Products
would begin immediately. last August to supply gas liquefaction technology
“For more than 30 years, McDermott has and equipment, and Baker Hughes two months
executed projects in Qatar’s North Field, and later for multiple refrigerant compressors. Last
we will leverage our experience and local year it also reserved LNG shipbuilding capacity
resources to successfully deliver this project,” with three South Korean shipbuilders in an order
McDermott said. “As oil and gas field devel- worth $19bn, to build a fleet to deliver its extra
opment continues in the region, we are poised production to markets.
to build on this initial work to further sup- As oil and gas producers face increasing scru-
port Qatargas as they progress the subsequent tiny over emissions from their operations, Qatar
phases of the NFS project.” aims to capture and store some 7mn tpy of CO2
Qatar Petroleum started development drill- from its LNG facilities by 2027, its energy minis-
ing in March last year at the North Field East ter, Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, said in December. ™

P18 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 02 14•January•2021