Anadarko Petroleum of the US said it would seek long-term charters for around 16 liquefied natural gas carriers to ship volumes to customers from its proposed liquefaction and export project in Mozambique in southeast Africa.
The US exploration and production company, whose main assets are in onshore shale and conventional basins in the US states of Arkansas, Texas, Colorado and Pennsylvania, is scheduled to make a final investment decision soon along with its partners on the $20-billion Mozambique joint venture.
The supply contracts signed so far are for shipments delivered on an ex-ship (DES) basis whereby the seller provides the sea transportation to deliver to the buyer’s preferred import terminal.
“The project needs approximately 16 LNG vessels to service the DES contracts,” said the US company.
The Anadarko-led Mozambique venture will be the African nation’s first onshore development, initially consisting of two liquefaction Trains with total nameplate capacity of 12.88 MTPA with feed-gas coming from the Golfinho-Atum gas fields located within offshore Area 1 licence of the Rovuma Basin.
The Mozambique plant is being built near the port of Pemba in the northeast Cabo Delgado Province, about 900 kilometres north of Beira, the Mozambican city badly damaged by a cyclone in early March 2019 that caused many casualties.
Anadarko has supply deals with European utilities Centrica of the UK and French utility EDF, the Japanese utilities Tokyo Gas and Tohoku Electric and energy companies, Royal Dutch Shell, China National Offshore Oil Corp. and Bharat Petroleum of India.
The other stakeholders in the Anadarko-controlled Area 1 licence include Japanese trading house Mitsui and Co. and three Indian companies Bharat Petroleum, ONGC Videsh and Oil India Ltd., as well as Thailand’s national energy company PTTEP and the Mozambique state-owned oil and gas firm ENH.
Two other projects are planned in Mozambique from the separate Area 4 licence resources held by Italian energy company Eni and partners.
These include the Coral floating LNG joint venture with capacity of around 3.4 MTPA already under construction and scheduled to come on stream in 2022.
The Area 4 onshore Mamba LNG project is also expected to be sanctioned in 2019 and production is scheduled to start in 2024.
That consortium is formed by Mozambique Rovuma Ventures, comprising Eni 25 percent, ExxonMobil 25 percent and China National Petroleum Corp. (PetroChina) with 20 percent.
The remaining 30 percent of shares in the Area 4 licence are held in parcels of 10 percent by South Korean utility and energy company Korea Gas Corp., Galp Energia of Portugal and Mozambique’s ENH.
