Page 16 - AfrOil Week 27

AfrOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES AfrOil

Sasol to shed stake in Nigerian GTL plant

SOUTH AFRICA South Africa’s Sasol has struck a deal to sell its plant with a 70% stake, while NNPC has 20%.
indirect 10% stake in the Escravos gas-to-liquids But the US major agreed in December to trans-
(GTL) plant in Nigeria to its US partner Chev- fer most of its stake over to NNPC as part of a
ron as part of a broader divestment programme. cost dispute resolution.
Sasol is looking to curb its debt to strengthen Sasol has several sales planned. It is collect-
its financial position during the downturn. In a ing binding offers for its 50% stake in a pipe-
statement on July 1, the company said the sale at line that supplies South Africa with gas from
Escravos would free it from various obligations, Mozambique. The bidding phase for the 865-km
including guarantees. It did not name a sales Rompco pipeline, which ships gas from onshore
price, nor say when it expected to close the deal. fields in Pande and Temane, will wrap up in late
But it did say it would continue to support Chev- July, according to Bloomberg.
ron at the plant by supplying catalysts, technol- The remaining interest in the pipeline is split
ogy and technical support. equally between the South African and Mozam-
The transaction will be backdated to Septem- bican governments.
ber 1, 2019. Sasol is also looking to dispose of the Cen-
The Escravos GTL plant entered operations tral Termica de Ressano Garcia (CTRG) power
in 2014 and uses up to 3.36bn cubic metres of plant, which receives gas from Rompco, and is in
gas per year to produce 34,000 barrels of syn- “far advanced” talks to find a partner for its base
thetic diesel, naphtha and liquefied petroleum chemicals operations in the US. Sasol added in
gas (LPG). Gas supply comes from the offshore its statement this week it had sold a 51% stake in
OML 90 block, operated by Chevron and Nige- an explosives joint venture to its partner Enaex.
rian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC). The pair formed the venture last year.
The GTL project has a chequered past of cost There were reports in May that Sasol was
overruns and delays, with its eventual expense negotiating the sale of its fuel retail operations to
reaching $10bn – four times more than the South Africa’s state-owned Central Energy Fund
original budget. Chevron currently operates the (CEF), but the companies have denied this. ™

Sasol returns two blocks to Mozambique

SOUTH AFRICA SOUTH Africa’s Sasol revealed on July 6 that it said. “Sasol acknowledges all the comments
intended to give up its exploration licences for received during the pre-feasibility phase of the
the shallow-water sections of Blocks 16 and 19, EIA process and values the input that all stake-
two adjacent sites lying offshore Mozambique. holders contributed.”
In a statement, the company reported that The South African company secured
it had already notified the Mozambican gov- licences for the shallow- and deepwater sec-
ernment of its intentions to relinquish all of its tions of Blocks 16 and 19 in June 2005 and then
holdings in the blocks. It also said it had made proceeded to explore the deepwater sections,
this decision after evaluating the exploration drilling two exploration wells that turned out
potential of the blocks and assessing a report not to contain commercial reserves. Then in
from the pre-feasibility phase of the Environ- 2013, it opted to relinquish the deepwater parts
mental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the project. of the blocks, only retaining the shallow-water
These processes led the firm to conclude that sections. It did so with the intention of drilling
withdrawal was the best option, it indicated. additional wells and “[defining] a future work
Sasol did not divulge any details of the report. programme to assess the remaining hydrocar-
It did say, though, that it had contracted Golder bon potential” but never reached the develop-
& Associates, an independent and specialised ment stage.
environmental consulting firm, to conduct the The project came under criticism from
pre-feasibility assessment prior to development environmental groups, who pointed out that
because of concerns about environmental risks Sasol’s shallow-water plans targeted areas that
in the offshore zone. were close to Mozambique’s Bazaruto (Marine)
“This [assessment] process involved con- National Park. The park encompasses a group
sultation with all relevant stakeholders, from of five islands and is home to the largest living
government on all levels [and] industry such as population of dugongs, an endangered marine
tourism and fisheries to academia,” the company mammal. ™

P16 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 27 08•July•2020