Page 13 - AfrOil Week 15 2021

AfrOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES AfrOil

Meen/EPCM alliance to develop gas plan

MAURITANIA MAURITANIA’S Ministry of Petroleum, Mines country optimise the exploration and mone-
and Energy has tasked a consortium formed by tisation of gas from fields shared with Senegal
a local firm and its South African partner with such as Grand Tortue/Ahmeyim (GTA), which
developing a master plan for the development of is being developed by BP (UK) and Kosmos
the country’s natural gas resources. Energy (US).
The ministry announced its decision earlier Additionally, it will include local-content
this month, saying it had awarded the project to provisions targeting the entire energy value
Meen & Meen, a Mauritanian oil and gas engi- chain – the upstream, midstream and down-
neering and consulting firm, and EPCM Hold- stream sectors, as well as electric power, petro-
ings, a South African engineering project and chemicals and related projects.
product developer. It did not disclose the value The Ministry of Petroleum, Mines and
of the deal or say when it hoped to finalise the Energy began searching for a contractor to draw
contract. up the gas master plan in 2019, following the
However, it did say that the choice of the discovery of 15 trillion cubic feet (425bn cubic
Meen/EPCM consortium would “[reinforce] metres) of gas in recoverable reserves at GTA.
the collaborative nature of the relationship Fourteen companies and consortia submitted
between Mauritania and South Africa.” The deal bids for the project, and the ministry shortlisted
also highlights the success of efforts to encour- seven of them.
age business deals between companies based in BP and Kosmos Energy are hoping to launch
the global South. production at GTA at an initial rate of 70mn
According to the ministry, the master plan cubic feet (1.98mn cubic metres) per day in
will serve as a comprehensive strategy for the 2023. The cost of the project, which will also
exploration, extraction and development of involve the production of 10mn tonnes per year
Mauritania’s offshore gas fields. It will help the (tpy) of LNG, is expected to reach $4.8bn. ™

Tanzania aims to push LNG project ahead

TANZANIA SAMIA Suluhu Hassan, the new president of construction of a gas plant with two or three liq-
Tanzania, said last week that she wanted to push uefaction trains in Lindi, a coastal town in the
a long-delayed LNG project led by Equinor south-eastern part of the country. The facility
(Norway) and Royal Dutch Shell (UK/Nether- would use gas from three deepwater offshore
lands) forward. sites containing about 35 trillion cubic feet
Speaking at a ceremony marking the formal (991bn cubic metres) – Block 2, assigned to
appointment of her new cabinet ministers and Equinor, and Blocks 1 and 4, assigned to Shell –
their deputies, Hassan instructed the country’s as feedstock for LNG production.
Ministry of Energy to bring negotiations on Equinor has expressed scepticism about the
the $30bn Tanzania LNG project to a close as viability of Tanzania LNG. Earlier this year, the
quickly as possible. She also requested that the Norwegian major wrote the book value of the
ministry work to determine whether the scheme project down by $982mn, saying that its break-
was facing any specific obstacles. even price was likely too high to be profitable.
“It is time to know if the project is viable or It has stopped short of abandoning the scheme,
not and understand who is blocking it,” she said. though, and says it may resume work at a later
These measures will allow Tanzania’s gov- time.
ernment to decide whether to continue working Meanwhile, the project is running far behind
with Equinor and Shell or to look for another schedule. Tanzanian officials had previously said
partner, she added. “If the existing investors are they hoped to sign a host government agree-
not willing, then you [the ministry] must find ment (HGA) with Shell and Equinor in 2019,
others,” she declared. and this would have allowed the two majors to
James Mataragio, the managing director begin work in 2022.
of Tanzania Petroleum Development Corp. However, these deadlines were not met,
(TPDC), responded to Hassan’s statements by partly because of commercial disputes between
calling an emergency meeting with senior mem- the companies and the government and partly
bers of his staff. “We [TPDC] have to think and because Hassan’s predecessor John Magu-
discuss what to do,” he told The Citizen. fuli made the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline
The Tanzania LNG project envisions the (EACOP) project a higher priority. ™

Week 15 14•April•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P13