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GLNG AFRICA GLNG
Tema LNG seen receiving its first cargo soon
PROJECTS & TEMA LNG Terminal Co. (TLTC), the owner As of press time, neither Shell nor GNPC had
COMPANIES of a new LNG terminal at the Ghanaian port of divulged any additional information on the tim-
Tema, may be able to start commercial opera- ing of the terminal’s launch. Platts noted, though,
tions before the end of this month. that the spokesman’s words were in line with pre-
The terminal, which consists of a floating vious reports indicating that Tema LNG would
regasification unit (FRU) and a separate float- take delivery of its first cargo by the end of the
ing storage unit (FSU), has yet to come online. first quarter of 2021.
However, a spokesman for the project told S&P The terminal’s FRU and FSU have both
Global Platts last week that the terminal would been moored at a new jetty built by West
be “mechanically ready” to take delivery of its Africa Gas. The regasification unit is capable
first shipment by the end of March. of handling 1.7mn tonnes per year (tpy) of
As such, he said, Ghana National Petroleum LNG, and the storage vessel boosts the facili-
Co. (GNPC) will soon be in a position to import ty’s total storage capacity to 145,000-160,000
its first cargo of LNG under a long-term supply cubic metres.
contract with an affiliate of Royal Dutch Shell TLTC’s owners are Helios Investment Part-
(UK/Netherlands). He cautioned, though, that ners and Africa Infrastructure Investment Man-
the LNG cargo’s arrival date had not yet been agers, both based in the UK. The partners have
fixed. “We are waiting for Shell, the supplier, and awarded a contract for the operation and main-
GNPC, as the off-taker, to decide and confirm tenance of the terminal to Reganosa of Spain.
the delivery date for their first cargo to arrive at Under this contract, Reganosa must also operate
the terminal,” he said. and maintain the 16-inch (406-mm) riser, sub-
The spokesman, who was not named, did not sea pipeline and onshore 6-km pipeline used to
reveal the size or price of Tema LNG’s first cargo. pump the regasified LNG to onshore facilities.
DPR authorises installation
of FLNG unit at Yoho oilfield
PROJECTS & NIGERIA’S Department of Petroleum Resources for example, were built for Malaysia’s Kanowit
COMPANIES (DPR) has reportedly authorised a contractor project and are slated to remain there.
working for ExxonMobil (US) and Nigerian The only existing FLNG unit known to be
National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) to install a available is a smaller vessel – the 500,000 tpy
floating LNG (FLNG) unit at the Yoho oilfield. Tango LNG, which Argentina’s national oil com-
Templars, the Nigerian legal firm that has pany (NOC) YPF chartered in 2019 for instal-
been serving as advisor for the FLNG project, lation near Buenos Aires. YPF declared force
said earlier this week that DPR had issued a majeure on its contract with Exmar, the Belgian
licence to UTM, the Nigerian firm that has company that owns Tango LNG, in 2020, citing
agreed to install the vessel for ExxonMobil and fallout from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pan-
NNPC. UTM intends to provide an FLNG unit demic. The vessel has been berthed in the Uru-
capable of turning out 1.2mn tonnes per year guayan port of Nueva Palmira ever since.
(tpy) of LNG, it noted. ExxonMobil and NNPC began development
After installation, the vessel is slated to pro- of the Yoho oilfield in 2003. They have been
cess up to 176mn cubic feet (4.984mn cubic re-injecting associated gas back into the res-
metres) per day of associated gas from the Yoho ervoir in order to maximise yields but are now
field. This will allow it to produce one or two looking to switch course, since the site is mature.
standard-size LNG cargoes each month, Tem- The FLNG project will give the partners a means
plars said. of commercialising the gas while they wind
According to the law firm, the Nigerian down oil extraction.
firm has not yet decided whether to charter an In the meantime, Yoho is still yielding about
existing FLNG vessel or order a newbuild unit 35,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil. ExxonMo-
for the project. Most existing units have already bil and NNPC are using a floating production,
been assigned to other projects, or were pur- storage and off-loading (FPSO) to develop the
pose-built for them; the PFLNG-1 and-2 vessels, offshore field.
Week 10 12•March•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P9
