Page 16 - AfrOil Week 02 2021

AfrOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES AfrOil

FRU arrives at Ghana LNG terminal

GHANA A floating regasification unit (FRU) has arrived functionality of a large-scale FRU-terminal, but
on site for Ghana’s first LNG import terminal, with added flexibility, allowing it to respond to
with commercial operations scheduled to start rapidly increasing domestic gas demand with a
in the current quarter. cleaner and more affordable energy solution,”
The Tema LNG project will take up to 1.7mn the Spanish company said.
tonnes per year (tpy) of LNG, enabling local The contract award comes after financial
thermal power plants (TPPs) and industrial close was reached on the project in November
facilities to switch to gas from costlier and dirtier last year, following receipt of a $31mn loan
liquid fuels. Its developer is Access LNG, a part- from the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund
nership between Africa-focused fund Helios (EAIF).
Investment Partners and LNG infrastructure Most of Ghana’s TPPs run on light crude
developer Gasfin. oil and fuel source, making them both ineffi-
The FRU arrived on January 7 and was sup- cient and expensive. The government wants to
plied by Jiangnan Shipbuilding, a subsidiary of expand the role of gas to bring down energy
China State Shipbuiding. It left the Chinese ship- costs, and increase access to reliable power sup-
yard in late November. ply. The lack of stable electricity supply has been
The terminal had originally been due to start a major impediment to economic growth in the
receiving gas in mid-2020 but its launch was country.
delayed, in part because of disruptions caused Ghana first began developing its gas market
by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. in 2008 by importing pipeline gas from Nigeria,
Its LNG will be supplied by Royal Dutch Shell via the West African Gas Pipeline. But supplies
under a long-term contract, while regasified have not lived up to expectations, with Nigerian
volumes will be sold to Ghana National Petro- suppliers often failing to provide contracted
leum Corp. (GNPC) for onward delivery to volumes.
customers. There have been a number of attempts to
Spanish LNG terminal operator Reganosa advance LNG import projects in the country
also reported on January 8 that it had obtained over the years, but so far, the Tema LNG scheme
a contract to operate and maintain the terminal. is the only one to have got off the ground. In
The contract covers the FRU and an LNG carrier addition to LNG imports, the country has
that will serve as a floating storage unit (FSU), looked to develop its own gas reserves, including
along with a 6-km gas pipeline and a pressure at the Tullow-operated Jubilee field, launch in
reduction and metering station connected to the 2014, the TEN deposits, which came on stream
existing pipeline network. in 2016, and the Sankofa field, which saw first
“The Tema LNG terminal project supports gas in 2018. ™
Ghana’s ambitions to continue on its trajectory
as one of the fasting growing economies in
Africa, by delivering the energy infrastructure
to support accelerated industrialisation,” Hel-
lios partner Ogdemi Ofuya commented. “As
evidenced in similar fast-growing economies
in Asia and Latin America, the introduction of
LNG into the energy mix serves as a catalyst for
industrial and economic growth.’
The terminal’s use of an FRU twinned with
an LNG carrier for storage is “innovative”, Rega-
nosa noted.
“This system provides Ghana with all the The FRU is due to begin operating in Q1-2021 (Photo: Tema LNG)

Coral FLNG group resumes drilling

MOZAMBIQUE THE developers of the $7bn Coral floating LNG The Instituto Nacional de Petroleo (INP) said
(FLNG) project off Mozambique have resumed it had learned from Mozambique Rovuma Ven-
drilling, the East African country’s regulator ture (MRZ), a consortium led by ExxonMobil
has said, after an eight-month break because of and Italy’s Eni, that the Saipem 12000 drillship
coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions. had arrived in Pemba on January 5.

P16 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 02 13•January•2021