Page 15 - AfrOil Week 02 2021

AfrOil POLICY AfrOil

The government used the event, which ran until In addition, the government presented the
January 6, to inform car companies and the gen- steps it is taking to ensure the necessary infra-
eral public about its gas conversion strategy and structure is in place to support gas-fuelled trans-
how financing can be obtained. It also sought to port. Egypt already has 200 natural gas filling
demonstrate the environmental and cost bene- stations in operation, and wants to open 325
fits of gas-fuelled cars. more in 2021. ™

PROJECTS & COMPANIES
Senegal pushes start date for

GTA gas production back to 2023

SENEGAL SENEGAL’S Oil Minister Sophie Gladima domestic electricity supplies.
revealed last week that investors in the Grand Gladima, for her part, went on to say that
Tortue/Ahmeyim (GTA) project had pushed Senegal’s government saw the country’s offshore
the start date for natural gas production back to oil and gas fields as a resource to support domes-
2023. tic development and not as a means of gaining
BP (UK) and Kosmos Energy (US) had entry to industry groups such as OPEC.
said previously that they hoped to bring this “Any talk of joining any international organ-
ultra-deepwater offshore block, which straddles isation or not is premature,” she said. “Senegal is
the maritime border between Mauritania and focused on the development of its oil projects to
Senegal, on stream in 2022. However, Gladima meet its objective of starting production from
told Bloomberg that the coronavirus (COVID- 2023.”
19) pandemic had put the GTA project behind The West African state wants to use its hydro-
schedule. carbons “to build an economy that’s connected
“The start of the pandemic coincided with a and competitive,” she added. To this end, it is
key period corresponding to the development of working to reduce domestic electricity prices,
the oil and gas fields,” she told the news agency. expand industrialisation initiatives and maxim-
“Many development-related activities – such as ise local content, she said.
the mobilisation of resources and people, the BP and Kosmos Energy have said they intend
construction phases on various sites around the to use the GTA block to support an LNG pro-
world and installations – were affected.” ject. To this end, they have arranged for Bermu-
The minister did not comment further on da-registered Golar LNG to convert the Gimi
the reasons for the postponement. Bloomberg LNG tanker into a floating gas liquefaction
noted that the delay was likely to affect Senegal’s plant, known as an FLNG, with a production
economy, as the government had been hoping capacity of 2.5mn tonnes per year (tpy). The
to start collecting revenues from gas sales in FLNG unit will process gas extracted from the
2022, and to increase the time needed to launch block by a floating production, storage and
gas-to-power schemes designed to increase off-loading (FPSO) vessel. ™

The block straddles the maritime border between Mauritania and Senegal (Image: Kosmos Energy)

Week 02 13•January•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P15