Page 6 - GLNG Week 01 2021

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DMEA: Mozambique militancy on the rise the corridor’s last section, the 10bn cubic metre
France’s Total has withdrawn workers from per year Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), was
Mozambique LNG, following an attack by sus- completed in October.
pected Islamists within the $20bn export pro- Italy is contracted to receive 8 bcm per year
ject’s concession area. (See: Total asks some staff of gas from TAP, while Bulgaria and Greece have
to vacate Mozambique LNG site on safety con- agreed to take 1 bcm per year each.
cerns, page 11) All eyes will now be on the binding phase
Militants with suspected links to Islamic State of a market test for TAP’s potential expansion
have been battling government forces in north- to 20 bcm per year, scheduled to take place in
ern Mozambique for three years, with attacks the summer of 2021. There are questions about
having grown more frequent over the past year. whether Europe will need this extra supply, given
The latest assault on January 1 was on the village a projected decline in demand as a result of the
of Quitunda, where Total is relocating commu- energy transition and ample alternative sources
nities as it builds export facilities and other infra- of supply.
structure. It was repelled by government forces. One such source is the Krk LNG terminal in
The fighting is the closest yet to Total’s con- Croatia, which received its first LNG tanker on
struction camp and the first attack to happen January 1. The terminal has an import capacity
within the Mozambique LNG concession area. of 2.6 bcm per year and will serve customers not Southeast Europe
It occurred under 1 km from an airstrip that the only in Croatia but in some neighbouring coun-
company has built to serve the project. tries as well. Some 80% of this capacity has been started importing
In other news, the board of Saudi petrochem- leased, mostly to Qatar. natural gas from
icals giant SABIC has backed the issue of $1.2bn Greece, meanwhile, plans to build a second
in dividends from earnings in the second half of LNG terminal in Alexandroupolis that will be two new sources
2020. The move comes after the company, which capable of bringing ashore some 5.5 bcm per
was bought by national oil producer Saudi Ara- year of gas. North Macedonia’s government at the start of
mco last summer, returned to profit in the three said earlier this week that it wanted to take a
months ending September 30, 2020, after incur- 10% stake in the project. The project’s existing this year.
ring three straight quarterly losses. shareholders are Greece’s Copelouzos energy
Meanwhile in Nigeria, Waltersmith Petro- group, as well as DEPA Commercial, the coun-
man Oil has secured 2,000-4,000 barrels per day try’s main gas supplier, and Monaco-based LNG
(bpd) in oil supplies for its modular refinery in carrier owner GasLog. Bulgaria’s Bulgartransgaz
Imo State under a deal with Seplat Petroleum. and Greece’s DESFA are also set to participate as
The oil will be sourced from the Ohaja South investors.
field at the OML53 permit.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
launched the 5,000 bpd Waltersmith refinery in Europe’s oil and gas sector then please click here for
late November. The facility also receives oil from NewsBase’s EurOil Monitor.
Waltersmith’s own Ibigwe marginal oilfield.
FSU: Rosneft’s Arctic plays
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping Rosneft closed the sale of a 10% interest in its
the downstream sector of Africa and the Middle East, Vostok Oil venture in the Russian Arctic to
then please click here for NewsBase’s DMEA Monitor. commodities trader Trafigura in late December,
thereby taking the ambitious project one step
EurOil: Europe gains import options closer to realisation.
Southeast Europe started importing natural gas The price Trafigura paid for the stake has
from two new sources at the start of this year, not been disclosed. But given the resources at
cutting into the market share of Russia’s Gaz- play – Rosneft has estimated Vostok Oil’s liquid
prom, the region’s main supplier. reserves at 6bn barrels – this likely represents the
BP announced late on December 31 that the biggest foreign investment in Russia’s oil indus-
Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) pipeline network try in years.
was now fully operational. SGC consists of three Vostok Oil comprises a group of oilfields in
pipelines that run from Azerbaijan through the Russia’s far north. Rosneft has pinned its hopes
South Caucasus and Turkey and into Southeast for keeping output levels steady over the coming
Europe, carrying gas from the offshore BP-oper- decades on these sites, as its older deposits fur-
ated Shah Deniz 2 (SD2) field. Construction of ther south are nearly depleted.

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