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Senegal pushes start date for GTA gas

production back to 2023

SENEGAL SENEGAL’S Oil Minister Sophie Gladima electricity supplies.
revealed last week that investors in the Grand Gladima, for her part, went on to say that Sen-
Tortue/Ahmeyim (GTA) project had pushed egal’s government saw the country’s offshore oil
the start date for natural gas production back to and gas fields as a resource to support domestic
2023. development and not as a means of gaining entry
BP (UK) and Kosmos Energy (US) had to industry groups such as OPEC. “Any talk of
said previously that they hoped to bring this joining any international organisation or not is
ultra-deepwater offshore block, which straddles premature,” she said. “Senegal is focused on the
the maritime border between Mauritania and development of its oil projects to meet its objec-
Senegal, on stream in 2022. However, Gladima tive of starting production from 2023.”
told Bloomberg that the coronavirus (COVID- The West African state wants to use its hydro-
19) pandemic had put the GTA project behind carbons “to build an economy that’s connected
schedule. and competitive,” she added. To this end, it is
“The start of the pandemic coincided with a working to reduce domestic electricity prices,
key period corresponding to the development of expand industrialisation initiatives and maxim-
the oil and gas fields,” she told the news agency. ise local content, she said.
“Many development-related activities – such as BP and Kosmos Energy have said they intend
the mobilisation of resources and people, the to use the GTA block to support an LNG pro-
construction phases on various sites around the ject. To this end, they have arranged for Bermu-
world and installations – were affected.” da-registered Golar LNG to convert the Gimi
The minister did not comment further on LNG tanker into a floating gas liquefaction plant,
the reasons for the postponement. Bloomberg known as an FLNG, with a production capacity
noted that the delay was likely to affect Senegal’s of 2.5mn tonnes per year (tpy). The FLNG unit
economy, as the government had been hoping to will process gas extracted from the block by a
start collecting revenues from gas sales in 2022, floating production, storage and off-loading
and to increase the time needed to launch gas- (FPSO) vessel.™
to-power schemes designed to increase domestic

FRU arrives at Ghana LNG terminal

GHANA A floating regasification unit (FRU) has arrived also reported on January 8 that it had obtained
on site for Ghana’s first LNG import terminal, a contract to operate and maintain the terminal.
with commercial operations scheduled to start The contract covers the FRU and an LNG carrier
in the current quarter. that will serve as a floating storage unit (FSU),
The Tema LNG project will take up to 1.7mn along with a 6-km gas pipeline and a pressure
tonnes per year (tpy) of LNG, enabling local reduction and metering station connected to the Pull quote to go
thermal power plants (TPPs) and industrial existing pipeline network.
facilities to switch to gas from costlier and dirt- “The Tema LNG terminal project supports in here Pull quote
ier liquid fuels. Its developer is Access LNG, a Ghana’s ambitions to continue on its trajectory as
partnership between Africa-focused fund Helios one of the fasting growing economies in Africa, to go in here Pull
Investment Partners and LNG infrastructure by delivering the energy infrastructure to sup-
developer Gasfin. port accelerated industrialisation,” Hellios part- quote to go in
The FRU arrived on January 7 and was sup- ner Ogdemi Ofuya commented. “As evidenced here Pull quote
plied by Jiangnan Shipbuilding, a subsidiary of in similar fast-growing economies in Asia and
China State Shipbuiding. It left the Chinese ship- Latin America, the introduction of LNG into the to go in here Pull
yard in late November. energy mix serves as a catalyst for industrial and
The terminal had originally been due to start economic growth.’ quote to go in
receiving gas in mid-2020 but its launch was The terminal’s use of an FRU twinned with an
delayed, in part because of disruptions caused LNG carrier for storage is “innovative”, Reganosa here.
by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Its noted.
LNG will be supplied by Royal Dutch Shell under “This system provides Ghana with all the
a long-term contract, while regasified volumes functionality of a large-scale FRU-terminal, but
will be sold to Ghana National Petroleum Corp. with added flexibility, allowing it to respond to
(GNPC) for onward delivery to customers. rapidly increasing domestic gas demand with a
Spanish LNG terminal operator Reganosa cleaner and more affordable energy solution,”

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 02 14•January•2021