Page 12 - AfrOil Week 46 2022

AfrOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES AfrOil

Nigeria’s UTM Offshore set to sign

FEED contract for FLNG project

NIGERIA JULIUS Rone, the CEO and managing director to raise the production capacity of the vessel’s
of Nigeria’s UTM Offshore, revealed on Novem- gas liquefaction unit from 1.2mn tonnes per
ber 15 that his company was preparing to sign year (tpy) to 1.52mn tpy.
a front-end engineering and design (FEED) The FLNG will be handling associated gas
services contract for the country’s first floating from Yoho, an oilfield located within the OML
LNG (FLNG) project. 104 licence area. ExxonMobil and its state-
Rone told LNG Prime that UTM Offshore owned partner, Nigerian National Petroleum
was scheduled to finalise the FEED contract in Co. Ltd (NNPCL), began extracting crude from
London on November 16. The contract will be Yoho in 2003 and have been flaring associated
executed by a group of international companies, gas or re-injecting it into the reservoir to max-
including Technip Energies (France), KBR (US) imise oil output. Now that the site is mature,
and JGC (Japan), he said. however, they see the FLNG project as a means
He did not divulge the exact value of the deal. of changing course and commercialising the
LNG Prime noted, though, that UTM Offshore field’s gas as oil yields decline.
had teamed up with the African Export-Import As of last year, Yoho was still yielding about
Bank (Afreximbank) last year to secure up to 35,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil. ExxonMobil
$5bn in financing for the FLNG project, with and NNPCL have been using a floating produc-
about $2bn of the total reserved for the first tion, storage and off-loading (FPSO) vessel to
phase of operations. develop the offshore site. Presumably, the FLNG
It also pointed out that the bank had signed vessel will be installed near the FPSO, at a site
a heads of terms (HoT) with the Nigerian com- about 60 km off the coast of Akwa Ibom state.
pany in June 2022 with the intent of pushing the UTM Offshore will serve as the operator of
scheme forward. That document provides for the FLNG. Vitol, the Swiss/Dutch commodities
Afreximbank to cover the costs of geotechnical trader, is slated to take delivery of all the LNG
studies and other studies up until the point of that the Nigerian company produces. ™
financial close and a final investment decision
(FID) on the project, it said.
UTM Offshore is now looking to take an FID
on building the FLNG before the end of 2023, he
told LNG Prime on November 16. Previously,
Rone had said that he expected the company
to reach this milestone in the second quarter of
next year but did not comment on the delay.
According to previous reports, JGC has
already completed a pre-FEED study for the
FLNG project, which envisions the construction
of a vessel with a single production train and a
storage capacity of 200,000 cubic metres. As a
result of that study, UTM Offshore has decided The FLNG will process associated gas from the Yoho field (Image: ExxonMobil)

ReconAfrica finds no commercial oil in

Namibia well test, pledges further drilling

NAMIBIA CANADA-BASED oil company Reconnais- its latest well.
sance Energy Africa (ReconAfrica) says it will The TSXV-listed exploration company on
continue with exploration drilling and seismic November 9 reported that its 8-2 well, in north-
work in Namibia, despite its failure to find com- east Namibia, has been a non-commercial gas
mercial amounts of crude oil or natural gas in discovery.

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 46 17•November•2022