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Mozambique will start monetizing the natural gas accumulations in the deepwater Rovuma basin, in the Indian Ocean, from September 2022.

That is the date the first cargo of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) will be exported from the 3.4Million Tonne Per Annum (3.4MMTPA) Floating LNG on the Coral South field in the basin’s Area 4 concession.

The gas is contracted to bp for 20 years with an option for a 10-year extension; it could help in Europe’s gas supply crisis.

September 2022 will be roughly 12 years and seven months since Anadarko-the now defunct American independent- discovered the giant accumulations of natural gas in Area 1 in deepwater Rovuma basin. It will be about 11 years after ENI discovered similar resources in Area 4, adjacent to Area 1.

For the otherwise aggressive operator ENI, Coral South FLNG is one of its longest discovery- to- market hydrocarbon projects, at least in Africa.

Thus, for the otherwise aggressive operator ENI, Coral South FLNG is one of its longest discovery- to- market hydrocarbon projects, at least in Africa.

ENI, in 2015, discovered the giant Zohr in deepwater Mediterranean, offshore Egypt. By 2017, the field was in production, supplying mostly Egyptian power plants.

Area 4 is operated by Mozambique Rovuma Venture (MRV), a joint venture led by ENI and consisting of ExxonMobil and CNPC (China), which holds a 70% participating interest in the concession contract. Galp, KOGAS (South Korea) and Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (Mozambique) each hold 10% stakes.

The Coral South FLNG platform has storage tanks on the hull and 13 modules on top, including a liquefaction plant, an eight-story module that can accommodate 350 people and a helicopter runway.

By Toyin Akinosho

TOTALEnergies expects to sign a head of agreement with Petroleum Agency South Africa (PASA) in late August and apply for production licence for its Brulpadda -Liuperd gas project by September 2022, but the likelihood that the project will have a smooth ride to delivery in 2025 is far from certain.

The Brulpadda -Liuperd gas and condensate reserves are located in Block 11B/12B in the deepwater Outeniqua Basin, 175km offshore off the coast of the Western Cape; just the right place and context that the country’s passionate, well-funded, environmental activists will likely choose to hold it up.

The plan is to pump the gas to the 200Million standard cubic feet per day (200MMscf/d) Gas To Liquids Plant operated by state hydrocarbon firm PetroSA at Mossel Bay also in the Western Cape.

TOTALEnergies application for production licence “is almost certainly something which will be subjected to legal opposition from climate justice groups and nongovernmental organisations opposed to the development of the gas reserves”, reports EWN.co.za, a South African online newspaper.

“The barrage of legal cases against fossil fuel projects is a significant concern for the Central Energy Fund CEF, the state energy parastatal”, EWN reports, quoting Ayanda Noah CEF’s Chief Executive who is looking forward to working with TOTALEnergies on the project. “There is litigation just from all angles. In fact, I think all our oil and gas projects – there’s litigation on all of them, which is a challenge,” she says

TOTALEnergies estimates around 3.4Trillion cubic feet and 200Million barrels of condensates of recoverable reserves in the two fields.

Ayanda Noah told Fin24 in an exclusive interview. “The plant needs to be upgraded. That work will have to be done, and I believe it will take about 12 to 18 months. The gas is coming in about 2024 to 2025 – so it’s literally around the corner.

But just a week ago, Barbara Creecy, the South African Minister of Forestry Fisheries and the Environment shot down a second appeal by the Turkish Karpowership group for ship-mounted gas-fired power plants at harbours in Richards Bay, Ngqura and Saldanha Bay, saying that the country’s desperate need for power should not come at the expense of the Constitution or the environment, and subsequently human beings.

Ms. Creecy’s decision fits a pattern of anti-hydrocarbon activism in South Africa.

TOTALEnergies has been, indeed, an exception to the rule. Last February the Western Cape high court ruled, in favour of fishing communities on the West Coast, against Searcher Seismic’s proposed multiclient survey, planned to acquire  10,000 sq km of three dimensional (3D) and around 22,014 km of 2D seismic data, over a number of blocks in the west and southwest coasts of South Africa, covering the Outeniqua Basin and its sub-basins, including Bredasdorp, Infanta, Pletmos, Gamtoos, Algoa and Southern Outeniqua Basins.

That ruling came about 40 days after Shell lost its bid to appeal an interdict granted to Wild Coast small-scale fisher communities opposed to its 3D seismic survey. The Australia-based Seismic Searcher decided to discontinue pursuing the case and announced the immediate demobilization of its survey vessel, the BGP Pioneer.

ENI has also had challenges with activists against its plans to explore off the Kwazulu Natal, right in the Indian Ocean.

The New Gas Consortium in Angola has reached Final Investment Decision for the Quiluma and Maboqueiro gas project, the first non-associated gas project in the country.

The project includes two offshore wellhead platforms, an onshore gas processing plant and a connection to Angola LNG plant for the marketing of condensates and gas via LNG cargoes. Project execution activities will start in 2022 with a first gas planned in 2026 and an expected production of 330Million standard cubic feet of gas per day (330MMscf/d) at plateau

The New Gas Consortium (NGC) includes ENI, Chevron, Sonangol P&P (the state hydrocarbon company),  bp and TOTALEnergies, together with Angola’s National Agency for Oil, Gas and Biofuels ANPG (the regulator and concessionaire)

“The sanctioning of the Q&M Project is an important milestone towards unlocking new undeveloped sources of energy, sustaining a reliable supply of gas to the Angola LNG plant”, the partners say in a statement.

The New Gas Consortium partnership encompasses ENIi (25.6%, operator), Chevron (31%), Sonangol P&P (19.8%), bp (11.8%) and TOTALEnergies (11.8%).

Angola had struggled with a clear framework for gas development, for most of its hydrocarbon exploitation history. It wasn’t until the last five years, that the country developed principles to ensure private sector take in natural gas development.

“The establishment of a legal and fiscal regime applicable to the upstream activities and sale of natural gas in Angola was a key enabler for the project”, the NGC partners explain.

The NGC, through the is project, has a relationship with the Angola LNG (ALNG) group stakeholders. Like the NGC, Chevron again holds the highest stake in ALNG, with 36.4%, Sonangol (22.8%), bp (13.6%) and TOTALEnergies (13.6%) and ENI (13.6%), The plant is located in Soyo, Province of Zaire and has a treatment capacity of approximately 353Billion cubic feet a year of feed gas and a liquefaction capacity of 5.2Million metric tonnes a year of LNG.

WAGL Energy Limited, a joint venture business operated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited and Sahara Group, is set to develop and construct jetties across West African countries to boost the supply and penetration of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) in the sub-region.

Emmanuel Ubani, Managing Director, WAGL Energy Limited said discussions were already at advanced stages for the first in the lot, adding that WAGL had embarked on developing infrastructure to take beneficial advantage in the emerging energy transition era.

While acknowledging growing LPG demand in Africa, Ubani advised elements that make up the enabling environment for LPG utilization include infrastructure -both liquefaction and regasification plants, gas distribution, pipelines and/or gas distribution trucks, cylinder distribution and/or segmented local distribution to individual houses and industries

“All parts of the value chain must be in place and functional, that is, a distribution system to enable feasible access for the users must exist, a ready and vibrant market network and most importantly, acceptable and accommodating uses of the alternative energy source. Ensuring this requires both public and private investments at a level that allows for economies of scale, supporting in making the sector commercially viable. Sufficient attention on policy and strategic level, with clear responsibility allocation and appropriate regulation of the sector, is required.”

Ubani said nations seeking to lead energy transition across the continent would need to massively de-risk and promote more private sector investment, a step he described as very critical.

“Governments need to do a great job at providing an enabling environment for the sector to thrive. They need to take advantage of the abundancy and competitiveness of renewables and also support systemic innovation, especially as it affects the changing energy mix,” Ubani advised.

The Coral South Project has achieved the introduction of hydrocarbons to the Coral Sul Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) plant from the Coral South reservoir offshore Mozambique.

“Following the introduction of gas in the plant, Coral Sul FLNG will now be ready to achieve its first LNG cargo in the second half of 2022, adding Mozambique to the LNG-producing countries”, according to a statement by the Italian player ENI, the Upstream Delegated Operator of Area 4, on behalf of its partners ExxonMobil, CNPC, GALP, KOGAS and ENH.

“Hydrocarbons introduction comes after the safe and timely conclusion of the offshore commissioning activities”, ENI said. “The FLNG arrived at the final operating site offshore Mozambique in early January 2022; mooring and connection to six underwater production wells were finalized in March and May 2022, respectively”.

The Coral South project achieved Final Investment Decision in 2017.

“FLNG fabrication and construction activities started in September 2018 (Hull first steel cut), and were completed in 38 months as planned, despite the Covid-19 pandemic, with a FLNG Sail Away, from South Korea to Mozambique, on November 2021”, the statement added. “While performing the construction activities in Korea, several significant activities were undertaken in Mozambique, with support from the Mozambican authorities, including the ultra-deep waters (2,000m wd) Drilling and Completion and Offshore Installation campaign that involved the highest technological and operational skills.

“Coral-Sul FLNG has been implemented with an energy optimization approach, integrated in the design via a systematic analysis of energy efficiency improvements. These include among others, zero flaring during normal operations, use of thermal efficient aero-derivative gas turbines for refrigerant compressors and generation, use of Dry Low NOx technology to reduce NOx emission and waste heat recovery systems for the process”.

The Coral Sul FLNG is 432 metres long and 66 metres wide, weights around 220,000 tons and has the capacity to accommodate up to 350 people in its eight-story Living Quarter module. The facility is located at a water-depth of around 2,000 metres and is kept in position by means of 20 mooring lines that totally weight 9,000 tons.

Coral Sul FLNG has a gas liquefaction capacity of 3.4Million tons per year (MTPA) and will put in production 16Trillion Cubic feet of gas from the giant Coral reservoir, located in the offshore Rovuma Basin.

Coral-Sul FLNG is the first floating LNG facility ever deployed in the deep waters of the African continent.