Page 16 - AfrOil Week 31

AfrOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES AfrOil

Renergen completes design of LNG plant

SOUTH AFRICA SOUTH Africa’s Renergen said last week that it the total proven reserves of North America.
had completed design work on its planned gas Once the gas liquefaction plant comes
liquefaction plant 22 days ahead of schedule. online, Renergen will halt production of CNG
In a statement, the company described the and switch to LNG. The company has already
plant design as the fourth major milestone in arranged to work with a unit of France’s Total to
its Virginia gas project. Achieving this goal is in promote the use of LNG as a fuel for long-haul
line with efforts to launch LNG production in trucking. Total will use its filling stations along
2021, it said. the Johannesburg-Durban section of the N3
Renergen is building its LNG plant in two highway to distribute LNG from the first phase
stages. The first stage will involve connecting of its South African partner’s plant.
the company’s natural gas wells near Welkom, The second stage of Renergen’s LNG plant is
Virginia and Theunissen in Free State to a new due to begin production in 2023. Part of the pro-
pipeline. duction from the second stage will distributed in
It will also encompass the construction of the Total retail outlets along all South Africa’s major
gas liquefaction plant and of a helium plant. highways, and the remaining volumes will be
The latter facility will take advantage of the sold to other buyers.
fact that Renergen’s gas fields contain an unu- Renergen recently held South Africa’s first
sually high concentration of helium. Sproule, LNG auctions. It announced the start of the
an international energy consulting firm, has sales on July 20, saying it would accept offers for
estimated that they may hold as much as 9.74bn future production streams of LNG and helium
cubic metres of helium, a quantity that exceeds from its plant until August 28. ™

Turkana County officials seek more

info on Tullow’s Kenya projects

KENYA LOCAL officials in Turkana County have This is not the first time Tullow has attracted
demanded additional information on the criticism in Kenya. Last month, members of the
activities of Tullow Oil (UK/Ireland), which Kenyan parliament’s energy committee raised
has begun the process of withdrawing from its objections to the company’s exit plan.
upstream projects in the South Lokichar Basin. Specifically, the MPs noted that Tullow was
Josphat Nanok, the governor of Turkana, seeking $2.04bn in compensation for expenses
complained last week that Kenya’s government for exploration work in the South Lokichar
had not disclosed all relevant details on Tullow’s Basin over a period of six years, while an audit
drilling operations in the area. “We face the conducted by Swale House Partners at Nairobi’s
challenge of accessing critical information request put that figure at around $1.6bn. They
shared by the government,” he said at a meeting argued that this discrepancy, combined with the
with county officials in Lodwar. “The Turkana government’s refusal to divulge full details of the
County Grievances Management Committee audit, made further investigation necessary.
has been left in the dark.” Meanwhile, Kenya’s Ministry for Petroleum
The other officials at the meeting, including and Mining has raised questions about Tullow’s
Deputy Governor Peter Lotethiro and county declaration of force majeure in May. The com-
lawmakers, agreed and called for an audit of pany has pointed to the disruptive effects of
Tullow’s activities. They advised Nanok to press flooding, transportation problems and the coro-
Nairobi for more information and suggested navirus (COVID-19) pandemic on its Kenyan
that the governor direct his request to John projects, but ministry officials have speculated
Munyes, the cabinet secretary of the Ministry that the company was trying to derail its opera-
for Petroleum and Mining. tions in the South Lokichar Basin.
Tullow announced plans to exit East Africa Tullow has been working with Total and
earlier this year and has already arranged to Africa Oil (Canada) to develop Blocks 10BA,
sell its assets in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to 10BB and 13T in Kenya. Equity in the project
Total (France). It has yet to complete the with- was originally split 50% to Tullow, 25% to Total
drawal process, however. and 25% to Africa Oil. ™

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