Page 5 - AfrOil Week 12 2020

AfrOil COMMENTARY AfrOil
 Mozambique LNG progress
The Air Products contract is the latest to be handed out in relation to the Mozambique LNG project, development of which is being led by France’s Total.
In late February, the French company awarded two master service agreements (MSAs) to Australia’s Worley. The MSAs cover in- and out-of-country services, including consulting and specialist engineering for the delivery of onshore and offshore facilities in support of Mozambique LNG.
Worley said it had been supporting work on the plans for Mozambique LNG since gas was discovered offshore in 2010. During that period the ownership of Mozambique LNG has changed hands twice. The project was initially being led by Anadarko Petroleum, which was taken over by Occidental Petroleum in August 2019. Total agreed to sell Anadarko’s African assets to Total as part of the deal, and that trans- action was completed in September.
Coral South FLNG
Progress is also being made on Eni’s Coral South floating LNG (FLNG) project, which is antici- pated to enter service in 2022.
In late February, Netherlands-based ALP Maritime Services announced that it had been selected to provide a spread of five vessels related to Coral South.
ALP’s contract covers the towage operation from South Korea to offshore Mozambique by three of the company’s 300-tonne bollard-pull anchor-handling tugs. On arrival at the offshore site in Mozambique, the three anchor-handling tugs will be joined by two additional vessels from ALP’s 14,000-kW tug fleet, the company said in a statement.
Together, the five vessels will keep the 432- metre Coral Sul FLNG facility accurately in position, while a mooring vessel connects the pre-laid mooring chains to the facility. Follow- ing completion of the mooring operation, two of the five ALP vessels will continue to support further operations at the site.
The engineering, procurement, construc- tion, installation, commissioning (EPCIC) and
start-up contractor for Coral South FLNG is the TJS Consortium, involving TechnipFMC, JGC and Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI).
Air Products said in its statement last week that it was also involved in Coral South FLNG.
What next?
The increasingly challenging LNG market, how- ever, is thought to be bad news for one further LNG project in Mozambique that has yet to reach the final investment decision (FID) stage.
The Rovuma LNG project is being led by ExxonMobil, and the FID was pushed back to June 2020, after previously having been expected last year. However, ExxonMobil said last week that it was preparing to make “signif- icant” spending cuts in the wake of the oil price collapse and coronavirus pandemic.
ExxonMobil’s chairman and CEO, Darren Woods, had previously said that the company was continuing to work with governments, including in Mozambique, to advance new pro- jects. However, there is speculation that Rovuma LNG could be delayed further as the super-ma- jor scales back short-term spending.
This comes after ExxonMobil refused to be rushed into accepting the Papua New Guinea government’s terms for the PNG LNG expan- sion, involving the P’nyang gas field develop- ment. The impasse suggests that companies are currently less inclined to rush into developing new projects, and the unfolding situation as countries try to contain the COVID-19 out- break will likely only slow any momentum.
ExxonMobil was previously budgeting for capital spending of $30-33bn this year, com- pared with $31.1bn in 2019. Investment bank Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. (TPH) has pro- jected that the super-major could cut 10-12% from its outlays and reduce capital spending to $28-29bn.
ExxonMobil has already taken steps includ- ing the selection of an EPC contractor consor- tium composed of JGC, Fluor and TechnipFMC, suggesting a level of commitment to Rovuma LNG. However, it would not be surprising if rapidly deteriorating market conditions result at least in a delay to the project.™
“ deteriorating
market conditions could lead
to delays for ExxonMobil’s Rovuma LNG project
Rapidly
France’s Total is leading the Mozambique LNG project (Image: Total
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