Page 11 - EurOil Week 46

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Further west, a new investor is set to join the DMEA: BP downsizes GTA plans
consortium that is developing the Sangomar oil- BP and other investors in the Greater Tortue
field offshore Senegal. Australia’s FAR Ltd said Ahmeyim (GTA) LNG project offshore Senegal
last week that it had agreed to sell its 15% stake and Mauritania have scaled back their expansion
in RSSD to India’s ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) for plans in order to reduce costs, Houston-based
$66.58mn, with the possibility of further pay- partner Kosmos Energy has said.
ments following the start of production. The project’s second phase was expected to
raise liquefaction capacity from 2.5mn tonnes
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping per year (tpy) to 10mn tpy. Reporting its
Africa’s oil and gas sector then please click here for third-quarter results, though, Kosmos said the
NewsBase’s AfrOil Monitor . expansion would add only 2.5mn tpy, bringing
the total to 5mn tpy.
Asia: OIL extinguishes well fire The revised capacity represents “the sweet
State-run Oil India Ltd (OIL) has finally extin- spot for leveraging all the major infrastructure
guished the well fire at Baghjan, a natural gas and from phase one,” Kosmos CEO Andy Inglis told
condensate field in Assam state, more than five investors in an earnings call.
months after the initial explosion. OIL spokes- The second phase will utilise spare capacity
man Tridiv Hazarika said on November 15 at the subsea infrastructure already being devel-
that the fire, which started on June 9, had been oped for the first phase, Inglis explained. Rather
“doused completely” and that the company was than requiring a new floating production storage
working to cap the Baghjan-5 well. and offloading (FPSO) unit, the first-phase ves-
He said: “The well has been killed with brine sel will instead be expanded. A second gas export
solution and is under control now. There is no line from the FPSO to the hub terminal will also
pressure in the well now, and it will be observed no longer be required.
for 24 hours to check if there is any amount of gas “As a result, we believe phase two will be
migration and pressure build-up.” the most competitive brownfield LNG expan-
The developer experienced a blowout at the sion project globally,” Inglis said, “with limited
well on May 27 after it tried to bring a new reser- upstream capital requirements expected to be
voir on stream. This led to “uncontrollable” flows less than $1bn gross to first gas.”
of gas and condensate that eventually caught Breakeven costs for this LNG are projected
fire the following month, killing two OIL fire- to come to just above $4 per mmBtu for Asian
fighters and destroying roughly 30 homes. OIL deliveries and even less for European ones,
only managed to get the well fire under control thanks to the lower capital costs.
in mid-September, with Hazarika noting at the Over in the UAE, national oil company
time that well-killing operations were to begin (NOC) ADNOC said on November 9 it intended
within three-four weeks. to start trading refined products in December
The company’s slow pace in terms of tackling through its joint venture with Italy’s Eni and
the well fire has attracted criticism from the gov- Austria’s OMV. ADNOC Global Trading (AGT)
ernment, while also triggering local protests. is 65%-owned by ADNOC, 20% by Eni and 15%
A government-order investigation into the blow by OMV. The recently-formed venture began
out and subsequent explosion of the well slammed derivatives trading in September with a focus on
the company’s response to the disaster in July. crude oil. It had hoped to launch trading opera-
The commission said OIL had not only failed tions in the second quarter of 2020, but the coro-
to properly plan, execute and supervise a num- navirus (COVID-19) pandemic led to delays.
ber of critical operations but had also failed to “Next month, we will begin trading the full
secure several government approvals prior to portfolio of our refined products,” ADNOC CEO
spudding the well almost a decade and a half ago. Sultan al-Jaber said at the ADIPEC conference.
Protestors, meanwhile, have frequently dis- ADNOC has global ambitions for AGT.
rupted work at the company’s drill sites and “The plan is to grow into Singapore, Europe and
workover locations across the state. This has led potentially gain a presence in the US,” ADNOC’s
to lost oil and gas production, with the company director for marketing, supply and trading said
in its quarterly financial results released last week at the conference. “We start with a [1mn barrel]
that the disaster had cost it more than $30.5mn refinery behind us, and the relationship with
as of late September. [Vitol Tank Terminals International] allows us
Despite various operational pressures, the access to locations all over the world.”
company announced a new gas discovery last
week. OIL said on November 13 that it had If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
struck a gas via the Dinjan-1 well in its Tinsukia the downstream sector of Africa and the Middle East,
petroleum mining lease (PML), which is located then please click here for NewsBase’s DMEA Monitor.
in the Upper Assam Basin. The discovery, made
at some point in the first half of financial year Europe: UK drilling slump
2020-2021, flowed at a rate of 115,000 cubic UK crude oil and natural gas production is slated
metres per day during testing. to fall this year as drilling slumps to its lowest
level since the 1970s, Oil and Gas UK (OGUK)
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping warned in a report on November 11.
Asia’s oil and gas sector then please click here for Overall activity has dropped sharply as a result
NewsBase’s AsianOil Monitor . of low oil and gas prices and restrictions related

Week 46 19•November•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P11