2019 was the great year of reset for the hydrocarbon industry in Africa.
There was sharper clarity in fiscal remit for the large sized, field development projects that had been on queue since the price crash period.
The loss of momentum around the Uganda basin wide oil development was the spectacular exception.
That Oomph! will spill over into 2020, a year that will be defined by both optimism in the sector and stock taking about the future of hydrocarbons.
Nigeria’s Eight Million Tonne Per Annum (8MMTPA) NLNG Train 7 became, last week, the second large sized LNG development project to take Final Investment Decision in 2019.
With the Mozambique LNG project sanctioned last June, there will be some 20MMTPA combined onshore LNG capacity in the build phase in 2020. Which translates to some construction frenzy about African hydrocarbon projects around the world in 2020.
As country after countries in Africa is determined to run licensing rounds, the seismic data market will be busy, so will the “competent persons industry”, and the whole gamut of the subsurface investigation sector.
Rig activity will remain conservative; there’s unlikely to be very significant uptick in drilling in Angola,Gabon, Congo Brazzaville and South Sudan. Nigeria, however, is headed for at least 20% higher rig activity than it experienced in 2019, which translates to about five more rigs. Algeria and Egypt will also be busy with the drill bit.
That said we highlight, in our late December 2019/early January 2020 edition, a number of operational events that will run the course of the year. Our theme is Who Is Doing What and Where in 2020?
The Africa Oil+Gas Report is the primer of the hydrocarbon industry on the continent. It is the
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medium for decision makers, whether they be international corporations or local entrepreneurs,technical enterprises or financing institutions. Published by the Festac News Press Limited since 2001, AOGR is a paid subscription, monthly hard copy and e-copy publication delivered around the world.
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We wish all our readers a prosperous new decade.
Fred Akanni, Editor in Chief
