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gas industry and from other resources shall be terminals to offset an anticipated production blip
properly utilised and accounted for, because as a from the offshore Erawan gas field from 2022.
party, we have financial discipline,” he said. The Bangkok Post reported in October that
Muntu was speaking around the same time the government wanted to use spare capacity at
that Don Binyina, executive director of the Africa the Map Ta Phut and Nong Fab LNG import ter-
Centre for Energy and Mineral Policy, criticised minals at Rayong to supply gas to TPPs owing to
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s handling anticipated delays in PTT Exploration and Pro-
of oil money. On Museveni’s watch, the balance of duction (PTTEP) assuming control of the field
the country’s Petroleum Fund has dropped from from Chevron.
UGX300bn ($81mn) to UGX87bn ($23mn), he PTTEP has said the US super-major’s arbi-
said at an event marking the launch of the Citizens’ tration with the government over Erawan will
Manifesto on Petroleum and Mining. stop it from installing production facilities this
year. Chevron’s concession for Erawan expires in
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping 2022, with PTTEP set to take over after having
Africa’s oil and gas sector then please click here for won the field’s contract in December 2018.
NewsBase’s AfrOil Monitor. The super-major has, however, locked horns
with Bangkok over a retroactive law passed in
AsianOil: Egco applies for Thai LNG import 2016 that requires operators to cover the decom-
licence missioning costs of equipment they installed,
Thai power utility Electricity Generating (Egco) even if another developer takes over the field and
has applied to the Energy Regulatory Commis- associated equipment.
sion (ERC) for a liquefied natural gas (LNG)
import licence. If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
The company applied earlier this month for Asia’s oil and gas sector then please click here for
permission to import 250,000 tonnes per year NewsBase’s AsianOil Monitor.
(tpy) to feed three gas-fired thermal power
plants (TPPs), company president Thepparat DMEA: Ghana LNG scheme secures funds
Theppitak told the Bangkok Post on November Ghana’s plans to import LNG have just received a
30. The plants include the 256-MW Banpong kick-start, with the Emerging Africa Infrastruc-
TPP in Ratchaburi, the 121-MW Klongluang ture Fund (EAIF) agreeing to provide a $31mn
TPP in Pathum Thani and the 120-MW Egco loan to a regasification scheme in the port of
TPP in Rayong. Tema.
Theppitak said the company intended to The loan, with a duration of 10 years, will go
import LNG via a mix of long and short-term to the project’s developer Access LNG, a joint
contracts to offset the risks posed by volatile venture between Helios Investment Partners and
pricing. The company may work with other LNG Gasfin Development. The pair reached financial
importers to combine their supply contracts. close on the scheme on November 16.
Despite the country producing gas from fields According to Gasfin, the terminal will deliver
in the Gulf of Thailand, as well as importing it by 250mn cubic feet per day (2.58bn cubic metres
pipeline from neighbouring Myanmar, declining per year) of gas. This gas will be used as fuel
output is driving the country to rely increasingly at thermal power plants (TPPs), providing a
on LNG to sustain its rising fuel demand. cleaner and less costly option than crude oil and
Thai LNG imports are projected to climb heavy fuel oil.
to 27mn tonnes in 2037 from 4.4mn tonnes Helios partner Ogbemi Ofuya suggested
in 2018, with the chilled fuel set to account for Access LNG could provide additional LNG
70% of the country’s gas supplies compared with projects in sub-Saharan Africa. The current
around 13% in 2018. low price of gas, he said, means “there is a great
LNG may also gain ground more quickly in opportunity for Access to support markets
the short term, with energy planners report- switching to natural gas as a clean, cheap transi-
edly planning to scale up the use of two import tion fuel as we push developments to support a

Week 48 02•December•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P13