LNG

French major TotalEnergies reported a decline in second-quarter earnings led by the company’s liquefied natural gas and the refining and chemicals divisions, while exploration and production performed well.

Baker Hughes, the US liquefied natural gas equipment-maker and energy services and technology company, has won a major contract from Brazil’s Petrobras.

ARA Petroleum, part of the Zubair Corporation based in the Sultanate of Oman in the Arabian peninsula, has been granted a 25-year development licence for the Ntorya gas discovery area onshore the far south of Tanzania.

The licence was awarded to the operator of the existing Ruvuma joint venture, ARA Petroleum Tanzania Limited (APT), a wholly owned subsidiary of ARA Petroleum.

APT took over operatorship of the onshore Ruvuma JV in 2020 and now owns a 75 percent working interest.

The Ntorya gas field lies within the Tanzanian onshore Ruvuma JV licence area and is adjacent to a region containing the world-class offshore natural gas resources with the same name in the Rovuma Basin underpinning LNG projects in Mozambique waters to the south.

ARA Petroleum is based in Muscat, Oman, and has affiliated offices in London, Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and Trondheim in Norway.

Onshore resources

The award of the development licence allows ARA Petroleum’s APT unit to proceed with Tanzania’s largest onshore gas development with the goal of producing gas for the growing domestic market in the next year.

“We are delighted to receive this licence from the Ministry of Energy and thank all the Tanzanian agencies involved,” said Erhan Saygi, General Manager of APT.

“We are ready to launch work immediately to bring this onshore development project into production,” he stated.

APT explained that it had prepared a field development plan that includes, but is not limited to, converting an existing well into a producing well, building in-field gas processing facilities and contracting a rig operator to drill a third well to appraise the field further.

APT expects to produce 40 million standard cubic feet a day in the first year of production and to increase that to 140 million standard cubic feet a day within a few years, according to a gas sales agreement signed with the Tanzanian Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) earlier in 2024.

Such volumes would increase significantly current Tanzanian gas production.

Additionally, APT believes the potential for gas production from the field is far larger having commissioned, acquired and interpretated 338 square kilometres of 3D seismic data over the Ruvuma JV licence area.

Gas potential

Following the interpretation of the seismic data, APT said it considered the area to yield a matured unaudited Contingent Resource estimate of 3.45 trillion cubic feet of Gas Initially In Place (GIIP), with an mean unrisked GIIP potential of 16.4 Tcf and a risked mean potential of 6.9 Tcf for the wider Ruvuma JV area.

“Acknowledging this wider potential, the development licence divides the original ‘Mtwara Exploration Licence’ area into nine blocks: five blocks containing the Ntorya discovery and four blocks labelled as ‘adjoining’ blocks,” the company explained.

The Ruvuma JV parties are required to undertake geological, geophysical and geochemical studies in the area and drill at least one additional exploration well within five years while spending a minimum of $10 million.

“We are excited about further exploration and appraisal work in this area as we consider it to hold truly enormous volumes of gas,” said APT’s Saygi.

“We believe the Ntorya gas field and wider area could be game-changing for Tanzania’s efforts to alleviate energy poverty, spur further economic development and potentially transform the country into a regional energy hub,” he added.

Oil India Limited, the state-owned oil and natural gas company and a stakeholder in Mozambique LNG, posted 13.5 percent higher quarterly net profits while revenues also rose, helped by higher crude prices offsetting lower natural gas values.

The company, which traces its roots to the first discovery of the crude oil in India at Digboi in Assam in 1889, is the nation’s second-largest exploration and production company after Oil and National Gas Corp. (ONGC) and the net profits in the quarter to the end of March 2024 were its highest ever.

Oil India said fourth-quarter net profits came to 2,029 crore Indian rupees ($243.5M) compared with 1,788 crore rupees ($214.6M) in the prior-year quarter.

The company said quarterly earnings per share increased to 18.71 rupees from 14.61 rupees per share.

Mozambique plans

Serious moves had recently been underway to resume the TotalEnergies-led project development.

Oil India’s stake in Mozambican LNG is in the Area 1 Rovuma Basin licence operated by TotalEnergies and centred on the long delayed liquefaction plant construction on the Afungi Peninsula in Cabo Delgado province.

Other overseas stakes are held by Japan's Mitsui with 20 percent stake and three Indian companies, ONGC Videsh, Bharat PetroResources and Beas Rovuma Energy each have a 10 percent and Thailand's PTTEP owns 8.5 percent.

Oil India is involved in the Area 1 Block through its 40 percent shareholding in Beas Rovuma Energy.

In its earnings statement, Oil India said revenues for the quarter increased to 5,757 crore rupees ($691M), up from the 5,646 crore rupees ($677M) earned in the fourth quarter of 2023.

The company reported annual fiscal-year revenues of 22,129 crore rupees ($2.65 billion) versus 23,259 crore rupees ($2.79Bln) in the previous 2022-2023 fiscal year.

Annual fiscal-year net profits dropped to 5,551 crore rupees ($666M) from 6,810 crore rupees ($817M) in the previous year.

Earnings per share for the year declined to 51.20 rupees per share from 62.80 rupees per share.

Crude prices

The company, whose headquarters are in Noida in the state of Uttar Pradesh, said that global crude oil prices jumped during March, benefiting the company's bottom line.

Oil India's crude oil division accounts for more than 70 percent of total revenue and natural gas for much of the rest.

“We achieved a growth in our natural gas production during the fourth quarter by 3.21 percent over the corresponding quarter of FY23 and the company achieved the highest ever domestic natural gas production of 3.182 billion cubic metres,” India Oil said.

Annual crude oil revenues declined to 16,123 crore rupees ($1.93Bln) compared with 16,787 crore rupees in the previous fiscal year.

Natural gas revenues for the year came to 5,189 crore ($623M), down from 5489 crore rupees ($659M) in the previous year.

Renergen, the emerging South African company with liquefied natural gas and liquefied helium production plans, is continuing its drilling programme after starting LNG production in September and output is expected to reach about 50 tonnes per day early in 2023.

China’s Cosco Shipping Heavy Industry said it had completed the construction of the floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit that will be deployed as part of the BP-led floating LNG export project offshore the West African nations of Mauritania and Senegal.

Kosmos Energy, based in Dallas, Texas, is the partner of BP in the joint venture centred on the Greater Tortue-Ahmeyim gas fields, the first phase of which is about 80 percent complete.

The first Mauritania-Senegal FLNG production facility is scheduled to have first gas in early 2023.

The Greater Tortue-Ahmeyim LNG project has the FPSO as one of its key installations.

As part of support for the FPSO, mooring piles were pre-installed offshore while Cosco Shipping was completing the facility.

Cosco Shipping confirmed it had completed the construction of the FPSO at its Qidong shipyard and a completion ceremony had been held.

Dimensions

The Chinese company said the FPSO is 270 metres in length, 54.5 metres wide, 31.5 metres deep and the living quarters can accommodate 140 people.

Cosco was responsible for the FPSO’s main hull and living quarters, as well as the construction of topside modules.

“This FPSO is a key part of the Greater Tortue-Ahmeyim LNG project and will soon sail to Mauritania and Senegal to create a new energy hub in Africa,” added a statement.

In addition to the FPSO, a floating liquefaction plant is being completed at Singapore’s Keppel Shipyard.

This involves the conversion to a liquefaction facility of the conventional LNG carrier, the “Gimi”, which will have 2.5 million tonne per annum of output.

The FPSO will process gas from the Tortue-Ahmeyim field, removing heavier hydrocarbon components, prior to delivering it to the FLNG hull.

The Greater Tortue-Ahmeyim project is expected to have a second phase producing gas on the Mauritania-Senegal maritime border in partnership with the national oil and gas companies of Senegal and Mauritania, Petrosen and SMHPM respectively.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, the owner of the Das Island LNG plant in the United Arab Emirates and Italian oil and gas company and LNG project developer Eni, plan to explore further opportunities to increase worldwide natural gas supply security.

The 50th anniversary Gastech Exhibition and Conference on LNG, pipeline natural gas and emerging energies entered its third day on Wednesday after serious discussions on the natural gas crisis in Europe, the future of Gazprom's ties with the West and projects to replace Russian gas from regions like the East Mediterranean and Africa.

French energy major Total said resumption of a full work programme scheduled at the Mozambique LNG export project had been postponed after another attack by extremists in the north of Cabo Delgado province.

European energy major Total has formally resumed a full work schedule on the Mozambique LNG export project after the government in the southeast African nation improved security arrangements in Cabo Delgado province.