LNG

The state-owned oil and natural gas company in Namibia in southwest Africa has signed an agreement with Chevron Corp. granting the US major an 80 percent operating and working interest in a key offshore block.

The terms of the transaction are that Namibia National Petroleum Corp. (Namcor) and Custos Energy, a Namibian independent oil and gas exploration company focused on attracting investment and expertise to the Namibian offshore industry, will each retain a 10 percent carried interest in Petroleum Exploration Licence 82 located in the Walvis Basin to Chevron Namibia Exploration Limited's majority stake.

Namibia has four oil and gas exploration and production basins north to south, comprising the Namib Basin in the north, then the Walvis Basin in Central Nambia, followed by the Luderitz Basin just to the south of that and then the more prolific so far Orange Basin in the far south near South African waters.

Orange discovery

Galp Energia of Portugal said on April 22, 2024, that its Mopane discovery in the southern Orange Basin could contain 10 billion barrels of oil equivalent or more.

The Namcor-Custos-Chevron deal concerns the Walvis Basin in the middle of the oil and gas resource area and offshore Walvis Bay in Central Namibia.

Namcor said in a statement that this strategic collaboration underscored its dedication to maximizing the exploration potential and development of Namibia's offshore resources, particularly in under-explored basins holding significant promise.

The transaction is pending regulatory approvals from the Namibia Ministry of Mines and Energy.

“Together, we will leverage significant expertise and resources to propel our national interests and economic growth, turning possibilities into prosperity for Namibia,” said Namcor’s Interim Managing Director Ebson Uanguta in a statement.

Namcor added that it anticipated a substantial surge in oil and associated natural gas production estimates following the analysis of existing data.

Ample seismic

Analysts noted that around 70 percent of the total block area is covered by extensive existing seismic data comprising over 3,500 kilometres of 2D and 9,500 kilometres of 3D data.

Previous drilling activity on PEL 82 discovered the Murombe-1 and Wingat-1 wells.

Results confirmed regional extensions and the presence of the Barremian-Aptianoil-prone source rock, known as Kudu Shale.

“We are pleased to announce the continuing expansion of our in-country partnership with Chevron through their entry into PEL 82,” said Knowledge Katti, Chairman and Chief Executive of Custos.

“This is one of the most advanced and interesting opportunities offshore Namibia outside of the Orange Basin.” Katti explained.

“We are pleased to see our efforts over the last decade on PEL 82 result in this important step forward adding further to Namibia’s world-class offshore opportunity,” he stated.

Galp Energia, the Portuguese oil and gas company whose most valuable upstream assets has been its stake in one of Africa’s prolific natural gas basins and LNG projects offshore Mozambique, says a new discovery off the southwest African nation of Namibia could contain 10 billion barrels of oil equivalent or more.

Tanzania, the future LNG exporter, and neighbour Uganda are making progress on oil and natural gas projects, signalling the start of the main construction phase for the region’s first major cross-border pipeline project.

Woodside Energy, the leading liquefied natural gas operator in Western Australia, said the “Léopold Sédar Senghor” floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit had safely arrived off the West African state of Senegal for a key oil project.

“This is a significant step toward achieving first production from the Sangomar oil field which is targeted for mid-2024,” said Woodside.

The FPSO’s delivery for the Sangomar oil venture follows the arrival of an FLNG production vessel in November 2023 for a separate project run by UK major BP that will also benefit Senegal as well as its neighbour Mauritania.

Oil output nearer

The Perth-based company said that the arrival of the FPSO, named after the first President of Senegal, from Singapore to its final destination, located 100 kilometres (62 miles) offshore the Sengalese capital Dakar, marked the start of the next phase of the project.

Woodside will now help oversee the commissioning of the FPSO and the hooking up to the 23 production, gas and water injection wells that make up the Sangomar Field Development Phase 1.

Woodside Chief Executive Meg O’Neill said the Sangomar project was advancing to the company’s satisfaction.

“The FPSO arrival brings us closer to first production,” said O’Neill.

“We are proud to be Senegal’s first offshore oil project operator and firmly believe that this project will prove to be important to Senegal’s future development and prosperity,” O’Neill stated.

“In addition to developing Senegal’s energy resources, we have already begun working with the Government of Senegal, local businesses and communities to develop programs that create business opportunities, build local capabilities, foster employment opportunities, and bring broad economic benefits as a result of our operations,” O’Neill explained.

The Woodside CEO also praised the role of the Société des Pétroles du Sénégal (Petrosen),  the national oil and gas company, as a contracting partner in the venture.

The Sangomar Field Development Phase 1 includes the stand-alone FPSO with subsea infrastructure and an expected production capacity of around 100,000 barrels of oil per day.

LNG developments

Senegal is also separately involved in floating LNG joint ventures being developed by BP and Kosmos Energy along with the governments of Senegal and Mauritania in the offshore Greater Tortue Ahmeyim natural gas fields.

Seatrium Group of Singapore converted and delivered an LNG floating production vessel, the “Gimi FLNG”, to be stationed at a nearshore hub located on the Mauritania and Senegal maritime border, and is expected to begin production in 2024 as part of the first phase of the FLNG venture.

The “Gimi FLNG” was converted by Seatrium in a project in partnership with Norway’s Golar LNG from a 1975-built Moss LNG carrier with a storage capacity of 125,000 cubic metres.

It is designed for 20 years of operations on-site without dry docking, with a liquefaction capacity of 2.7 million tonnes per annum and is contracted to operate near shore in 30 metres of water depth.

Expro Group Holdings, the global energy services provider, has been awarded a five-year well intervention and integrity contract with French major TotalEnergies in the East African nation of Uganda and covering the multi-well Tilenga project.

Somalia is attempting to return to the international fold after decades of being known mostly for piracy, terrorism and violent militia activity and said in a statement just issued that it was advancing with plans for offshore oil and natural gas exploration with a little-known US company based in Houston, Texas.

Royal Dutch Shell, the largest equity shareholder in Nigeria LNG, has launched arbitration proceedings against the Nigerian Government over a long-running community dispute involving contested claims about oil spills dating back many years.

Shell’s Netherlands-registered holding company filed a case for arbitration at the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in Washington DC on the 10th of February 2021.

Shell brought its World Bank arbitration case under the bilateral investment treaty between the governments of the Netherlands and Nigeria.

The decision follows the Anglo-Dutch company’s unsuccessful efforts in 2020 to reverse a court order instructing Shell to pay compensation to a community for polluting its land.

While the case’s victors say they are now owed more than 183 billion Nigeria naira ($479 million), Shell contests that valuation and denies even being responsible for the decades-old oil spill disputes.

Shell has said that given the history of this particular case, it was seeking protection of its legal rights from an international tribunal.

All of Shell’s appeals against the ruling have been dismissed, most recently by Nigeria’s Supreme Court in November 2020.

Shell operates the oil block at the heart of the dispute, which is known as Oil Mining Lease 11, in a joint venture with the Nigeria National Petroleum Corp., France’s Total and Italy Eni.

The same companies own Nigeria LNG using resources under seperate licences with current stakes being NNPC (49 percent), Shell (25.6 percent), Total (15 percent), and Eni (10.4 percent).

The OML 11 licence area has been the subject of prolonged litigation between the Ejama-Ebubu community in Tai Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers State located in the eastern part of the Niger Delta and Shell, the operator of the oil concession on behalf of the joint venture partners.

The roots of the litigation have been allegations by the community of a huge oil spill many years in the past, which they claimed was traced to a ruptured oil pipeline that belonged to Shell.

The Anglo-Dutch company has always denied responsibility for that incident.

As far back as 2001, Ejama-Ebubu community representatives again filed an application at the Nigerian Federal High Court for compensation for “a major crude oil blow-out and spill involving over two million barrels of oil”, resulting in the pollution, environmental devastation and destruction of property belonging to individuals and families in the area.

Shell has argued that oil spills in the Niger Delta over the last 20 years have been a result of sabotage, crude oil theft or illegal refining and that the company itself has cleaned up the mess regardless of the cause.

On the day before the Nigerian arbitration case was filed in Washington, Shell held a Web conference outlining its strategy to accelerate its transformation into a provider of “net-zero emissions” energy products.

“We will continue with short-term targets that will drive down carbon emissions as we make progress towards our 2050 target,” added Shell.

However, the company stated that it also expected a gradual reduction in its global oil production of around 1-2 percent a year, including divestments and natural decline.

Modec Inc, the Japanese builder of offshore floating production and storage platforms, has been awarded a contract by Woodside Energy to operate an oil and gas platform for the Western Australian LNG project stakeholder’s most import venture outside of Australia.