Page 15 - DMEA Week 05 2022

DMEA NEWS IN BRIEF DMEA

cooking gas, subject, however, to its realistic construction of the East Africa Crude Oil upstream development work forward, she
production output, as determined by other Pipeline (EACOP). Those documents outlined said.
factors.” plans for the construction of a 1,445-km “This historic occasion now puts us on
Yakubu noted that NLNG has been heated pipeline, the longest of its kind in the the path to achieving first oil in 2025, as
allotting an increasingly large share of its LPG world, capable of pumping 216,000 barrels per agreed in April 2021,” she commented. She
production to the domestic market since 2007, day (bpd) of crude from Hoima in western was speaking at a signing ceremony attended
when it apportioned 50,000 tonnes for local Uganda to the port of Tanga on Tanzania’s by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni,
use. This year, he said, the consortium is set to Indian Ocean coast. Tanzanian Vice-President Philip Mpango
deliver 450,000 tonnes, or 100% of its output, Then in November 2021, CNOOC took and TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné, as
to the domestic market. the step of making a final investment decision well as representatives of UNOC, TPDC and
NLNG has supported campaigns to (FID) on Kingfisher, which will eventually CNOOC.
promote the use of LPG as cooking gas and yield more than 40,000 bpd of oil. The deal is good news for the host
as automobile fuel, as well as petrochemical Now, as of February 1, 2022, TotalEnergies countries and for the entire region,
feedstock and fuel for power generation and has joined its partners in reaching the FID commented Douglas Rycroft, the director of
the agricultural sector, he added. This is in line stage on Tilenga. UK-based Gneiss Energy. “News this week
with the Nigerian government’s gasification This is a considerably larger field, as it of the FID decision by TotalEnergies on the
initiatives, he noted. is slated to produce about 204,000 bpd of Lake Albert Resources Development Project is
NEWSBASE crude from about 400 wells drilled from very encouraging for the East African energy
more than 30 pads. It will provide most of the sector as a whole, while for the Ugandan
throughput for the EACOP link, and as such, government more specifically, Tilenga and
PIPELINES the decision to proceed with work at Tilenga Kingfisher will generate significant, and
has freed the French major and its partners in much needed, revenues as they ramp up to
Uganda’s next big step the EACOP consortium – CNOOC, Uganda an expected plateau of 230,000 bpd following
National Oil Co. (UNOC) and Tanzania
first oil in 2025,” he told NewsBase. “A critical
toward oil production Petroleum Development Corp. (TPDC) – to aspect in the large-scale development of the
Lake Albert resource potential has always
make an FID of their own.
Ugandan authorities first learned that their In other words, both the upstream and the been securing evacuation routes to the coast
country was home to commercially viable midstream projects– described collectively to justify full field development costs, so
hydrocarbon reserves more than 15 years in a statement issued by TotalEnergies on reaching commercial agreement on EACOP
ago, when Australia’s Hardman Resources February 1 as the Lake Albert Development as an integrated part of the overall Lake
– later acquired by Tullow Oil (UK/Ireland) Project – are now in motion. CNOOC and Albert Development Project is a significant
– discovered crude oil at its fields near Lake Total Energies have opted to move ahead with milestone in unlocking value for industry
Albert. These reserves amount to around work at their sites near Lake Albert, and both participants, the national oil companies of
6.5bn barrels of oil in place (OIP), including are ready to team up with the national oil both Uganda and Tanzania, and the broader
around 1.4bn barrels of recoverable crude. companies (NOCs) of Uganda and Tanzania governments of both nations. Regionally, this
Commercialising them has been a slow to push forward to build the pipeline that will is an important step, as it signals multilateral
process, however. handle production from their fields. co-operation between East African nations
This is partly because of technical delays, This development has been hailed by to work in tandem to extract a nation’s
such as the fact that the waxy nature of Uganda’s Minister of Energy and Mineral hydrocarbons.”
crude from the Lake Albert sites led project Development Ruth Nankabirwa, who said on Rycroft added: “With progress on
engineers to opt for using a heated pipeline February 1 that the signing of documents with Mozambique’s giant gas project delayed due
for transport. It is also related to the fact that TotalEnergies and its partners would help to political unrest and slow progress on the
disputes between Tullow, its partner Heritage improve the economy. The projects will create commercialisation of Tanzania’s offshore gas
Oil (UK) and the Ugandan government up to 160,000 new jobs, while also pushing resources, it is clearly a solid step forward in
over taxation complicated the first attempts
to bring new investors on board and then
derailed later efforts to transfer the fields over
to new operators in the hope of speeding up
work.
Nevertheless, Uganda’s government has
made significant progress during the past two
years. In the spring of 2020, it struck a deal
worth $575mn with France’s TotalEnergies
and China National Offshore Oil Corp.
(CNOOC) on the acquisition of Tullow’s
fields. That deal provided for the French major
to assume control of Blocks 1 and 2, which
held the Tilenga field, while China National
Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) took control of
Blocks 1A and 3A, which held Kingfisher
In the spring of 2021, it signed a package
of agreements with TotalEnergies, CNOOC
and the government of Tanzania on the

Week 05 03•February•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P15