FID For Tanzanian LNG Likely By 2016

By Sully Manope
Norweigian operator Statoil has said that an investment decision on a likely LNG plant in Tanzania is not due for another three years(2016).

Translation: it is still early days yet, even as the European company celebrates a new gas find in the country’s deepwater, which it calculates as bringing its total recoverable resources there to 10-13 trillion cubic feet(TCF).

Statoil is adopting the Mozambican model for the proposed LNG project in deepwater Tanzania. It wants to do the project with BG, the other big operator in the country, just as Eni and Anadarko are collaborating on a two plant LNG project in the neighbouring country, reputed with over three times the size of gas off Tanzania. “We are working with BG to come up with a recommendation for a landing site. We should be making that recommendation to Tanzanian authorities fairly early in the second quarter,” Statoil’s head of exploration Tim Dodson reportedly told Reuters, the global news agency. Mr. Dodson said $10 billion was a fair estimate for the cost of developing the plant.

The latest find, Statoil’s third in the area in the space of a year, topped the volume in Block 2, operated by Statoil in partnership with ExxonMobil, by 4-6TCF, according to Statoil.

Statoil has a 65% working interest with ExxonMobil  holding the remaining 35%.