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Mozambique LNG secures $14bn in loans
MOZAMBIQUE
FRANCE’S Total and its partners in the Mozam- bique LNG project are reportedly gearing up to sign a credit deal worth more than $14bn with a group of banks.
Sources familiar with the matter told Bloomb- erg on May 20 that the Mozambique LNG con- sortium had been in talks with a large group of lenders on a deal worth $15bn.
About 20 commercial banks have agreed to make money available for the project and will sign an agreement before the end of June, they said.
Then on May 21, Reuters published a slightly different account, quoting two sources with knowledge of the matter as saying that Mozam- bique LNG had secured $14.4bn worth of loans from a group of around 20 banks. One of the news agency’s sources reported that the parties were set to finalise an agreement in the third quarter of the year.
The reasons for the discrepancies were not clear. Total has not yet commented on the matter. According to one of Bloomberg’s sources, the list of participating banks includes Stand- ard Bank Group (South Africa), Societe Gen- erale (France) and Rand Merchant Bank (South Africa). Societe General is acting as financial
advisor for the deal, he said.
As of press time, neither Societe Generale nor
Rand Merchant Bank had confirmed the news agency’s report. However, Standard Bank Group has indicated that it will provide financing for the Mozambique LNG project.
Dele Kuti, the bank’s global head of oil and gas, told Bloomberg on May 20 that his company was “pleased to see the progress” made so far on securing final credit approvals for the project.
“We have also approved large participations in Mozambique LNG’s ECIC and commercial tranches,” he said. “We look forward to signing the facilities in the next few weeks.” The $15bn credit will cover more than 65% of project costs, which have been estimated at $23bn. Total and its partners have not said how they intend to cover the remaining $8bn.
Equity in the Mozambique LNG consortium is split between Total E&P Mozambique Area 1, with 26.5%; Mitsui (Japan), with 20%; Bharat Petroleum (India), with 15%; Beas Rovuma Energy Mozambique (a 60:40 joint venture between ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) and Oil India Ltd (OIL), with 10%; Mozambique’s ENH, with 10%; and PTTEP (Thailand), with 8.5%. The Total subsidiary is serving as the operator.™
Official fuels worse than illegal in Nigeria
FUELS
NIGERIA
OFFICIAL gasoline and diesel imports into Nigeria have worse quality than supplies pro- duced at illegal refineries in the Niger Delta, a study by the Stakeholder Democracy Network (SDN) claims.
The study compared official products that were legally imported into the country with unofficial products manufactured at basic refin- eries using oil siphoned off from pipelines. Last year it took 91 samples of diesel, gasoline and kerosene from fuel stations in Nigeria’s Rivers and Bayelsa states, and in its capital Lagos.
The intention was to use the official fuel sam- ples as a control, but SDN’s programmes director Calvin Laing said the results were “concerning.” The unofficial diesel contained sulphur levels of 1,523 parts per million, while the official supplies held 2,004 ppm. A sample taken at the Oando station in Port Harcourt contained as much as 3,020 ppm.
Sulphur levels for gasoline were lower at 401 ppmforunofficialsamplesand429ppmforoffi- cial ones. In comparison, the EU has a sulphur limit for diesel and gasoline of 10 ppm. With ker- osene, once again official samples had a higher sulphur content of 813 per ppm, versus 759 ppm for unofficial volumes.
Nigeria sets a limit of 3,000 ppm for diesel and
1,000 ppm for gasoline, and there is no limit on the sulphur content in kerosene. New standards were announced in 2017 but were not enforced.
Fuel quality is difficult to control in Nigeria and there are numerous reports of blending, SDN’s Alexander Sewell said.
“Nigeria is exporting high-quality low-sul- phur crude and is importing low-quality high-sulphur fuel, which is likely to be a major contributor to air pollution in the Niger Delta and across Nigeria,” Sewell said.
Unofficial diesel is preferred to official diesel, despite being more viscous, Sewell said, as it is seen to last longer. The primary use of diesel is in trucks and large generators that need to run for a long time. As such, the unofficial sup Unofficial gasoline “tends to be of better [quality] than the official supplies, which is in line with consumer preferences,” he said. It is “viewed to be the most reliable by consumers, and producers of this fuel also boast that they can produce very good qual- itygasolineincomparisontootherfuels.”
“Unofficial fuel is often blamed for air pol- lution in Port Harcourt, but that is not the full story,” Laing said. “This conveniently defers responsibility on to those working in the arti- sanal oil industry.™
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