Page 9 - GLNG Week 45 2022

GLNG AFRICA GLNG

Kosmos Energy;s GTA Phase 1

preparations 85% complete

OPERATIONS US-BASED Kosmos Energy has estimated that turned up any evidence of significant damage,
preparations for launching Phase 1 work at the it stated.
Greater Tortue/Ahmeyim (GTA) block offshore “The forward plan is to complete all
Senegal and Mauritania are about 85% complete inspections and incorporate any findings into
as of the end of the third quarter of 2022. mechanical completion activities, along with
In a report on its interim results published commissioning work prior to sail-away, which
November 7, Kosmos said that Phase 1 of the is expected around the end of the year,” it added.
GTA project, which is operated by BP (UK), In the meantime, Kosmos added, the partners
“continues to make good progress.” As of Sep- have installed a shallow-water export pipeline
tember 30, it reported, the partners had largely linking the FPSO to the gas hub. They also hope
wrapped up work on the offshore facility that to lay a deepwater pipeline and in-field flowlines
will serve as a gas hub as the block. They have and have engaged a deepwater pipe-laying ves-
installed the living quarters platform at the hub sel for the job, it said. This ship is currently in
and have begun commissioning activities, it the vicinity of the GTA and carrying out final
explained. tests prior to launching work on these lines, it
Additionally, it said, BP has drilled all four reported.
of the development wells that will pump natu- BP and Kosmos are also working to find buy-
ral gas to the hub. (One of the wells was recently ers for Phase 1 LNG production from GTA, the
completed, and gas was allowed to flow to the rig report stated. It said the companies were in talks
during a “short clean-up period,” it noted.) These with potential buyers to use existing contractual
new wells served to bring production capacity up rights under Phase 1 sales agreements in ways
to 700mn cubic feet (19.8mn cubic metres) per that allowed them to reap maximum benefit
day, significantly above the level of 400 mcf (11.3 from current market conditions – that is, from
mcm) per day needed to sustain gas liquefaction strong demand for gas in Europe, which has lost
during Phase 1 of the GTA project, it added. much of its access to gas from Russia.
BP and Kosmos have not yet installed a gas Meanwhile, Kosmos said, the partners are
liquefaction facility at the block, as their float- also in talks with each other, as well as the gov-
ing LNG (FLNG) vessel – a former LNG tanker ernments and national oil companies (NOCs)
known as the Gimi LNG – has not yet finished of Senegal and Mauritania on plans for Phase
undergoing conversion at the Keppel shipyard in 2 of the GTA project. They said all the parties
Singapore. Even so, the FLNG is “[on] track for were looking to find a solution that offered the
sail-away in the first half of 2023, as construc- maximum benefit at the lowest cost and were
tion and mechanical completion activities con- considering development plans that made use
tinue and commissioning work has begun,” the of the infrastructure that is being put in place for
interim report said. Phase 1.
It also noted that the floating production, GTA, which straddles the offshore border
storage and off-loading (FPSO) unit built for between Mauritania and Senegal, contains
Phase 1 of the project had not yet left the ship- around 15 trillion cubic feet (425bn cubic
yard in Qidong, China where it was built. The metres) of gas, enough to support an export-ori-
FPSO has had to undergo extra inspection since ented LNG project as well as pipeline deliveries
Typhoon Muifa hit the shipyard, which is owned to Senegal’s domestic market. Kosmos discov-
by Qidong Cosco Shipping Heavy Industry ered gas at the block in 2015 and then teamed up
(CSHI), a subsidiary of China’s COSCO, in Sep- with BP for the project in 2016.
tember, it explained. The two companies made an FID on Phase
The storm compromised the FPSO’s mooring 1 of the project in late 2018. They have said they
lines and caused it to drift about 200 metres away want to produce 2.5mn tonnes per year (tpy) of
from the quay, the interim report said. The ves- LNG in this stage, perhaps rising later to 5mn
sel has been returned, and inspections have not tpy. Output could then double in Phase 2.™

Week 45 10•November•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P9