2017 will pull in more petrodollars into Africa than 2016. More of the proposed‘transformational projects’ will leave the drawing board and take Final 
Investment Decision in the new year.
The Seplat operated $1.3Billion Assa North –Ohaji South (ANOS), gas development project is on course for FID (See story on Page 11).
Commercial sanction for oil production in Uganda and Kenya, which looked so uncertain this time last year, is so sure now. The decision, if not made in 2017, will be made very early in 2018.
The most stubborn of the dark clouds surrounding the Ophir operated, 2.2MMTPA Fortuna Floating LNG off Equatorial Guinea have been lifted. The road is clearer for FID to happen in 2017, with the first gas pushed forward to 2020. Unlike the ENI operated CORAL Floating LNG (3MTPA capacity) to be sited off the coast of Mozambique, Fortuna hasn’t sold its entire supplies. And the way it’s going, CORAL is likely to come on stream before Fortuna.
As we predicted last year, ENI has been aggressively developing Zohr, the mammoth gas find it made in the deep waters of the Mediterranean in August 2015. It is on course to deliver first gas from this 30Trillion cubic feet property by the first quarter of 2018.
There’s pressure on both Anadarko and ENI to take FID on the largest single LNG trains ever to be installed on the continent; the onshore 6MMTPA projects (apiece) in Mozambique. The LNG market is so murky now that neither side wants to nail down a date. Still it’s tougher for Anadarko to take that decision than ENI, who seems to have found a formula for getting ahead with projects.
We asked you not to expect much exploration activity in Angola and Nigeria in 2016; and we predicted an uptick in infill drilling in the latter and lower rig count in the former. In the event, the two countries were disappointing. The resurgence in rig activity expected in Nigeria didn’t happen in 2016, but watch out for Nigeria in 2017. For Angola, the adventure will continue to be on hold.
Kosmos is keen on finding oil outboard of the gas discoveries in the Mauritania-Senegal area, so it will be doing a targeted three well campaign. The American minnow wants to be like Cairn, which has been the only independent to have discovered commercial quantities of crude oil offshore Africa in the current low price regime.
Congo continues its bid round, as does Equatorial Guinea. Egypt too, the perennial bid round holder, has announced its umpteen lease sale. The deal flow market was lack lustre in 2016, and we don’t expect significant shift in the coming year.
This full bodied Who is doing what and where in 2017 edition is yours for the taking.
The Africa Oil+Gas Report is the primer of the hydrocarbon industry on the continent. It is the market leader in local contextualizing of global developments and policy issues and is the go-to medium for decision makers, whether they be international corporations or local entrepreneurs, technical enterprises or financing institutions.
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