Page 7 - GLNG Week 10 2023

GLNG AFRICA GLNG

Tanzania completes talks with Equinor and

Shell on $30bn LNG project

TANZANIA TANZANIA has concluded negotiations on a Equinor and Shell, along with their non-op-
$30bn LNG project with Equinor (Norway) and erating partners ExxonMobil (US), Ophir
The long-planned Shell (UK), creating an opportunity for launch- Energy (UK) and Pavilion Energy (Singapore),
project may finally be ing the development of the country’s vast off- plan to build the LNG plant in Tanzania’s
building the momentum shore natural gas resources after years of delay. southeast Lindi region. The facility will even-
it needs. The successful completion of talks was tually have two gas liquefaction trains with a
announced by Tanzania’s Ministry of Energy in a production capacity of 5mn tonnes per year
Twitter post on March 6, Reuters reported. In the (tpy) each.
post, Energy Minister January Makamba noted The Energy Ministry did not say exactly
that the parties had wrapped up negotiations when it expected work on the LNG plant to
on the construction of an LNG plant and that begin. Tanzania Petroleum Development Corp.
experts were now working to draft the contracts (TPDC), the national oil company (NOC), had
needed to support the project. said last year that it hoped to see construction
These contracts include a host government start in 2023 and finish in 2028.
agreement (HGA), as well as a combined con- Tanzania is already a gas producer and has
tract for the development of the offshore sites put some of the volumes produced from offshore
known as Blocks 1, 2 and 4, which will supply fields such as Songo Songo to use to run thermal
natural gas for the onshore LNG plant, the min- power plants (TPPs) and manufacturing facili-
istry explained. ties. It also aims to build a fertiliser plant that will
According to previous reports, Shell holds the use domestically extracted gas as feedstock.
licence for Block 1 and Block 4, which are esti- As of June 2022, the government estimated
mated to hold 16 trillion cubic feet (453bn cubic the country’s total recoverable gas reserves at
metres) of gas in recoverable reserves. Equinor 57.54 tcf (1.63 trillion cubic metres). Accord-
operates Block 2, in which ExxonMobil holds a ingly, the development of the blocks that will
stake and is estimated to hold more than 20 tril- feed the Tanzania LNG project will raise the
lion cubic feet (566.4 bcm) of gas. reserve figure. ™

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