Page 17 - AfrOil Week 43

AfrOil POLICY AfrOil

The language of the bill is more or less in line before Abuja submitted the PIB to both houses
with remarks made by Timipre Sylva, Nigeria’s of the National Assembly for consideration.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, in Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has
early September. said he hopes to sign the law before the end of
At that time, Sylva said that the federal gov- the year.
ernment intended to merge PPPRA and PEF As of press time, it was not clear whether
into a single regulatory agency. The creation of the plan to incorporate PPPRA and PEF into
this new entity, he said, is designed to streamline NMDPRA had garnered any responses from
and optimise downstream and midstream oper- employees of those agencies. When the previous
ations in order to ensure efficient fuel deliveries administration mooted a similar plan in 2018, it
to Nigerian consumers. said it intended to transfer the two agencies’ staff
The minister was speaking a few weeks to the new agency. ™

PROJECTS & COMPANIES
Egypt’s Idku LNG plant prepares

to load first cargo since July

EGYPT EGYPT’S Idku LNG plant is gearing up to load
its first cargo for export since July, Reuters has
reported citing data provided by Kpler.
The Cape Ann LNG tanker arrived at Idku on
October 26 and is expected to carry the termi-
nal’s first export cargo since three months ago,
according to Kpler. The July shipment was the
first since late March, when Egypt halted exports
in response to the collapse in global LNG prices
triggered by the coronavirus (COVID-19)
pandemic.
The 7.2mn tonne per year (tpy) Idku plant
has shipped out only seven cargoes totalling
0.45mn tonnes of LNG this year, Kpler estimates,
versus 57 cargoes of some 3.66mn tonnes in size
in 2019. Royal Dutch Shell operates the first and The Idku LNG plant loaded its last cargo in July (Photo: Egypt Energy)
second Idku trains with stakes of 35.5% and 38%
respectively. Other partners include Malaysia’s has been idle since 2012, back when the coun-
Petronas, France’s Engie and Egypt’s two main try lacked the gas supply to keep it running.
state oil and gas firms, EGAS and EGPC. Its restart was anticipated sooner, but has been
Egypt now enjoys surplus gas supply follow- complicated by a legal dispute over compen-
ing the 2017 launch of the giant Zohr field in the sation due to the operators after the plant was
Mediterranean, led by Italy’s Eni. Since Zohr’s closed.
start-up, a number of other gas fields have been Damietta LNG is operated by Union Fenosa
discovered offshore and several have already Gas (UFG), a 50:50 joint venture between Eni
entered production. and Spain’s Naturgy. Under a February deal to
National gas output rose 12.4% year on year resume operations, UFG’s 80% share in Dami-
to a record 7.2bn cubic feet (around 9.3bn cubic etta was to be divided between Eni and EGAS.
metres) per day in the 12 months ending June This would have left Eni with 50%, EGAS with
30, according to Egypt’s petroleum ministry. 40% and EGPC with 10%. However, EGAS
However, weak global gas prices have discour- revealed in early April that the agreement had
aged the export of supplies. fallen through, amid uncertainties created by
Egypt’s only other LNG terminal at Damietta the pandemic. ™

Week 43 28•October•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P17