Page 14 - AsianOil Week 35

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Nigeria LNG (NLNG)
facilities on Bonny Island.

revealed last week that it had decided to exit In other news, Iraq’s oil-for-projects deal
South Africa’s offshore zone, where it has stakes with China is reportedly on hold because of the
in four licence areas. The US giant ExxonMobil, former’s unfolding economic crisis and pressure
which is a shareholder in three of these blocks, is from the US. The agreement reached last year is
also said to be looking to quit. expected to see China support a $10bn joint fund
In other news, Nigerian lawmakers have to develop reconstruction projects, including a
ordered an investigation into allegations number of refineries. In return, Iraq will supply
of financial wrongdoing by Nigeria LNG China with 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil.
(NLNG), a consortium that includes three However, local media report that the agree-
international majors as well as Nigerian ment has been put on ice. Washington is pressing
National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC). NLNG the government to cancel it, they claim.
has been accused of making $18bn in unau-
thorised withdrawals from an account used If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
to cover dividend payments to NNPC, its the downstream sector of Africa and the Middle East,
largest shareholder. then please click here for NewsBase’s DMEA Monitor.

If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping Turn of tide for UK rig market
Africa’s oil and gas sector then please click here for The market for semi-submersible rigs in UK
NewsBase’s AfrOil Monitor. waters has been oversupplied for years, weighing
down on day rates. But “the tide is beginning to
Mozambican security concerns turn” according to a new report by Oslo-based
France’s Total has formed a security pact with brokerage Bassoe Offshore.
Mozambique’s government to help protect its Rig owners are responding to the testing new
$20bn Mozambique LNG venture, weeks after market conditions by retiring more vessels, and
a key port near the project was captured by this could mean that operators struggle to find
Islamic militants. semi-submersibles for the work they plan in
Insurgents with suspected links to Islamic 2021, according to Bassoe. Some will have to drill
State have been battling government forces in in the harsher winter months in order to secure
gas-rich northern Mozambique, where several rigs, rather than working in the more favourable
major LNG export projects are under develop- summer months.
ment. The attacks have grown in frequency over This is set to be a long-term if not permanent
the past year. In July, eight employees of a pri- shift in market dynamics, Bassoe says. If opera-
vate construction firm working on Mozambique tors cannot find a way to progress with plans in
LNG were killed in an ambush. the coming year, it could lead to more units being
Mozambique LNG is due on stream in 2024 retired or cold-stacked, making rig scarcity even
and will produce 13.1mn tonnes per year (tpy) worse.
of super-cooled gas at its peak. The Golfinho and Neptune Energy, the Netherlands’ biggest
Atum gas fields in the Offshore Area 1 conces- oil and gas producer, saw its core earnings more
sion serve as its resource base. than halve in the second quarter. But the com-
Total and its partners secured almost $15bn pany fared better than others thanks to hedging
in senior debt financing for the project in early a good deal of its production. But the mainly
August. They will be hoping that the security sit- gas-focused producer warns that the recovery in
uation can be contained. gas and LNG prices will be slow.

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 35 03•September•2020