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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). (See: NLNG set to increase in mid-September, with Hazarika noting at the
domestic LPG supplies by 28.6% in 2021, page 15) time that well-killing operations were due to
The increase is in line with the federal government’s begin within three-four weeks.
efforts to promote the use of LPG as cooking gas, The company’s slow pace in terms of tackling
said Tony Attah, NLNG’s managing director. the well fire has attracted criticism from the gov-
Meanwhile, the government of Ghana has ernment, while also triggering local protests.
reportedly ordered Eni of Italy to unitise the off- A government-ordered investigation into the
shore Sankofa field with Afina, a licence area blowout and subsequent explosion of the well
assigned to a private Ghanaian company, Spring- slammed the company’s response to the disaster
field Exploration and Production. In a letter viewed in July. The commission said OIL had not only
last week by Bloomberg, Energy Minister John-Pe- failed to properly plan, execute and supervise a
ter Amewu said that his ministry was issuing this number of critical operations but had also failed
demand because the two companies had failed to to secure several government approvals prior to
work out a joint plan for development, in line with spudding the well almost a decade and a half ago.
previous instructions from Accra. Protesters, meanwhile, have frequently dis-
Further west, a new investor is set to join the rupted work at the company’s drill sites and
consortium that is developing the Sangomar oil- workover locations across the state. This has led
field offshore Senegal. Australia’s FAR Ltd said last to lost oil and gas production, with the company
week that it had agreed to sell its 15% stake in RSSD in its quarterly financial results released last week
to India’s ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) for $45mn, stating that the disaster had cost it more than
with the possibility of further payments following $30.5mn as of late September.
the start of production. The proceeds of the deal Despite various operational pressures, the
will allow FAR to make up for its failure to pay its company announced a new gas discovery last
own share of expenses over the last few months. week. OIL said on November 13 that it had
struck a gas via the Dinjan-1 well in its Tinsukia
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping petroleum mining lease (PML), which is located
Africa’s oil and gas sector then please click here for in the Upper Assam Basin. The discovery, made
NewsBase’s AfrOil Monitor . at some point in the first half of financial year
2020-2021, flowed at a rate of 115,000 cubic
Asia: OIL extinguishes well fire metres per day during testing.
State-run Oil India Ltd (OIL) has finally extin-
guished the well fire at Baghjan, a natural gas and If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
condensate field in Assam State, more than five Asia’s oil and gas sector then please click here for
months after the initial explosion. OIL spokes- NewsBase’s AsianOil Monitor .
man Tridiv Hazarika said on November 15
that the fire, which started on June 9, had been DMEA: BP downsizes GTA plans
“doused completely” and that the company was BP and other investors in the Greater Tortue
working to cap the Baghjan-5 well. Ahmeyim (GTA) LNG project offshore Senegal
He said: “The well has been killed with brine and Mauritania have scaled back their expansion
solution and is under control now. There is no plans in order to reduce costs, Houston-based
pressure in the well now, and it will be observed partner Kosmos Energy has said.
for 24 hours to check if there is any amount of gas The project’s second phase was expected to

Week 46 20•November•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P5