Page 8 - GLNG Week 09 2023

GLNG AFRICA GLNG

Saipem CEO sees Mozambique LNG

consortium resuming work in July 2023

MOZAMBIQUE ALESSANDRO Puliti, the CEO of the Italian renegotiation of certain sections of the Mozam-
oilfield services provider (OSP) Saipem, has said bique LNG contract. This should help “derisk
The project was put that he expects work on the Mozambique LNG the initial phase of the project resumption in the
on pause because project, led by France’s TotalEnergies, to resume best interest of Saipem and TotalEnergies, prior
of attacks by armed in July of this year. to return to the fixed contract for project com-
separatists. “We expect to gradually restart the project, pletion,” he commented.
according to the information received by our cli- TotalEnergies had previously planned to
ents, starting from July this year,” Puliti informed launch the Mozambique LNG project in 2024.
analysts. He was speaking during Saipem’s 2022 However, it has had to revise its plans in light of
earnings call on February 28. the attacks carried out by Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jamo
Saipem is the leader of the CCS group, which (ASWJ), an Islamist militant group with ties to
is providing engineering, procurement and con- Islamic State (Daesh). ASWJ began fighting for
struction (EPC) services for the Mozambique control of Cabo Delgado in 2017, and Mozam-
LNG consortium. It has teamed up with McDer- bique’s government efforts to pacify the province
mott International (US) and Chiyoda (Japan) to had limited success until the Southern African
implement €3.5bn ($3.72bn) worth of work on Development Community (SADC) and the
the consortium’s onshore natural gas-processing government of Rwanda stepped in to carry out
facility. peacekeeping missions.
The $20bn project has been on hold since The French giant operates the Mozambique
April 2021, when TotalEnergies declared force LNG consortium through its subsidiary Total
majeure and withdrew all personnel from its E&P Mozambique Area 1, which holds a 26.5%
onshore site on the Afungi Peninsula after a stake in the project. The remaining equity in
series of attacks by armed separatists. Patrick the group is split between two Japanese firms,
Pouyanne, the CEO of the French major, recently Mitsui and Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National
stated that the company was “not in a hurry” Corp. (JOGMEC), which have a combined
to restart work on its giant Mozambique LNG stake of 20%; Mozambique’s national oil com-
project. pany (NOC) ENH, with 15%; Bharat Petro-
Pouyanne was speaking during a recent visit leum (India), with 10%; ONGC Videsh Ltd
to Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado Prov- (OVL) (India), with 10%; Beas Rovuma Energy
ince, where he announced that Jean-Christophe Mozambique (a 60:40 joint venture between
Rufin, a humanitarian and human rights expert, OVL and Oil India Ltd, or OIL), with 10%; and
had been tasked with leading an independent PTTEP (Thailand), with 8.5%.
mission to evaluate conditions in Cabo Delgado. TotalEnergies and its partners aim to extract
The CEO also said he would wait for the report gas from Area 1, which lies offshore Mozam-
before to making any decisions about restart- bique in the Rovuma basin. They will process
ing work, but he also stated that TotalEnergies the gas at the LNG plant and onshore complex
intended to would hold discussions with its con- on the Afungi Peninsula. This facility will even-
tractors regarding costs. tually have two gas liquefaction trains, each
Puliti, for his part, said on February 28 that with a capacity of 6.44mn tonnes per year (tpy),
Saipem had already worked out an agreement and will use a dedicated fleet of LNG carriers to
in principle with the French major on the export its production. ™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 09 03•March•2023