Page 10 - DMEA Week 46 2022

DMEA REFINING & FUELS DMEA

The contract will be executed by a group that storage capacity of 200,000 cubic metres. As a
includes Technip Energies (France), KBR (US) result of that study, UTM Offshore has decided
and JGC (Japan), he said. to raise the production capacity of the vessel’s
He did not divulge the exact value of the deal. gas liquefaction unit from 1.2mn tonnes per
LNG Prime noted, though, that UTM Offshore year (tpy) to 1.52mn tpy.
had teamed up with the African Export-Import The FLNG will be handling associated gas
Bank (Afreximbank) last year to secure up to from Yoho, an oilfield located within the OML
$5bn in financing for the FLNG project, with 104 licence area. ExxonMobil and its state-
about $2bn of the total reserved for the first owned partner, Nigerian National Petroleum
phase of operations. Co. Ltd (NNPCL), began extracting crude from
It also pointed out that the bank had signed Yoho in 2003 and have been flaring associated
a heads of terms (HoT) with the Nigerian com- gas or re-injecting it into the reservoir to max-
pany in June 2022 with the intent of pushing the imise oil output.
scheme forward. That document provides for Now that the site is mature, however, they see
Afreximbank to cover the costs of geotechnical the FLNG project as a means of changing course
studies and other studies up until the point of and commercialising the field’s gas as oil yields
financial close and a final investment decision decline.
(FID) on the project, it said. As of last year, Yoho was still yielding about
UTM Offshore is now looking to take an FID 35,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil. ExxonMobil
on building the FLNG before the end of 2023, he and NNPCL have been using a floating produc-
told LNG Prime on November 16. Previously, tion, storage and off-loading (FPSO) vessel to
Rone had said that he expected the company develop the offshore site. Presumably, the FLNG
to reach this milestone in the second quarter of vessel will be installed near the FPSO, at a site
next year but did not comment on the delay. about 60 km off the coast of Akwa Ibom state.
According to previous reports, JGC has UTM Offshore will serve as the operator of
already completed a pre-FEED study for the the FLNG. Vitol, the Swiss/Dutch commodities
FLNG project, which envisions the construction trader, is slated to take delivery of all the LNG
of a vessel with a single production train and a that the Nigerian company produces. ™

Renergen resumes LNG production in

Free State after temporary shutdown

AFRICA SOUTH Africa’s Renergen has resumed LNG suspended operations last month in order to
production after taking its onshore natural gas protect its helium and nitrogen modules from
liquefaction plant offline for several weeks to damage.
repair a faulty conduction oil system. However, the company said in a stock
Renergen had launched the first stage of exchange statement dated on November 15 that
its LNG plant in Free State in September but it had now completed repairs and testing.

Renergen launched the first stage of its LNG plant in Free State in September (Photo: Renergen)

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 46 17•November•2022