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According to Timipre Sylva, the country’s min- migration and pressure build-up.”
ister of state for petroleum resources, Abuja has The developer experienced a blowout at the
a good chance of securing the passage of the law well on May 27 after it tried to bring a new reser-
before the end of the first quarter of 2021. voir on stream. This led to “uncontrollable” flows
In related news, the Nigeria LNG (NLNG) con- of gas and condensate that eventually caught
sortium has said it expects to raise the volume of fire the following month, killing two OIL fire-
LPG reserved for the domestic market to 450,000 fighters and destroying roughly 30 homes. OIL
tonnes in 2021, up from current levels of 350,000 only managed to get the well fire under control
tonnes per year (tpy). The increase is in line with in mid-September, with Hazarika noting at the
the federal government’s efforts to promote the use time that well-killing operations were to begin
of LPG as cooking gas, said Tony Attah, NLNG’s within three-four weeks.
managing director. The company’s slow pace in terms of tackling
Meanwhile, the government of Ghana has the well fire has attracted criticism from the gov-
reportedly ordered Eni of Italy to unitise the off- ernment, while also triggering local protests.
shore Sankofa field with Afina, a licence area A government-order investigation into the
assigned to a private Ghanaian company, Spring- blow out and subsequent explosion of the well
field Exploration and Production. In a letter viewed slammed the company’s response to the disaster
last week by Bloomberg, Energy Minister John-Pe- in July. The commission said OIL had not only
ter Amewu said that his ministry was issuing this failed to properly plan, execute and supervise a
demand because the two companies had failed to number of critical operations but had also failed
work out a joint plan for development, in line with to secure several government approvals prior to
previous instructions from Accra. spudding the well almost a decade and a half ago.
Further west, a new investor is set to join the Protestors, meanwhile, have frequently dis-
consortium that is developing the Sangomar oil- rupted work at the company’s drill sites and
field offshore Senegal. Australia’s FAR Ltd said last workover locations across the state. This has led
week that it had agreed to sell its 15% stake in RSSD to lost oil and gas production, with the company
to India’s ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) for $66.58mn, in its quarterly financial results released last week
with the possibility of further payments following that the disaster had cost it more than $30.5mn
the start of production. The proceeds of the deal as of late September.
will allow FAR to make up for its failure to pay its Despite various operational pressures, the
own share of expenses over the last few months. company announced a new gas discovery last
week. OIL said on November 13 that it had
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping struck a gas via the Dinjan-1 well in its Tinsukia
Africa’s oil and gas sector then please click here for petroleum mining lease (PML), which is located
NewsBase’s AfrOil Monitor. in the Upper Assam Basin. The discovery, made
at some point in the first half of financial year
Asia: OIL extinguishes well fire 2020-2021, flowed at a rate of 115,000 cubic
State-run Oil India Ltd (OIL) has finally extin- metres per day during testing.
guished the well fire at Baghjan, a natural gas and
condensate field in Assam state, more than five If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
months after the initial explosion. OIL spokes- Asia’s oil and gas sector then please click here for
man Tridiv Hazarika said on November 15 NewsBase’s AsianOil Monitor.
that the fire, which started on June 9, had been
“doused completely” and that the company was DMEA: BP downsizes GTA plans
working to cap the Baghjan-5 well. BP and other investors in the Greater Tortue
He said: “The well has been killed with brine Ahmeyim (GTA) LNG project offshore Senegal
solution and is under control now. There is no and Mauritania have scaled back their expansion
pressure in the well now, and it will be observed plans in order to reduce costs, Houston-based
for 24 hours to check if there is any amount of gas partner Kosmos Energy has said.

P16 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 46 18•November•2020