LNG

Côte d'Ivoire President Alassane Ouattara has outlined plans to boost oil and natural gas output three-fold in the West African nation by 2027 when it would become a major regional energy hub.

President Ouattara told a joint session of Parliament in a major speech that more than $15 billion was expected to be invested in the country's oil and gas sector, adding that output would grow to about 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) by 2027 from 60,000 at the moment.

He said that resources had been boosted by recent oil and gas discoveries including the Baleine and Calao offshore fields and Italy and others and nations would lead the investment to help the nation on the path to economic success.

“It will be a spectacular leap,” Ouattara declared to the legislature.

The Baleine field was discovered by Italian major Eni in 2021 and production started in 2023.

National resources

The Baleine oil and gas project alone will help ensure that the population has access to energy for daily living and the surplus would strengthens the Côte d'Ivoire's position as a regional energy hub.

The Côte d'Ivoire’s regional neighbours to the North, Senegal and Mauritania, are currently developing floating LNG projects and Senegal is starting its first offshore oil project backed by Australian LNG operator Woodside Energy.

Among Côte d'Ivoire’s southern neighbours, Nigeria is an established world-scale LNG and oil exporting nation.

Ouattara said that $10 billion would be invested in developing the Baleine field and this spending was taking place in three phases through 2027.

Certified reserves of the Baleine field, discovered by the Italian energy group in 2021, are estimated at 2.5 billion barrels of oil and 3.3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Eni additionally announced in March 2024 that the Calao field had been discovered with preliminary assessments indicating potential resources ranging between 1 billion barrels of oil to 1.5 billion barrels of oil. 

Another neighbour Cameroon has a small FLNG project in operation, Ghana plans LNG imports and Angola is a major oil and gas nation.

Most recently, the Eni-led FLNG project in the Republic of Congo shipped its first cargo to Italy.

African Investment surge

The Côte d'Ivoire’s mainly oil production has varied significantly over the past two decades as existing fields have become depleted, closed for maintenance or development works and as new discoveries have been made but have needed further investment and development.

Eni’s partner in the Baleine project and other ventures in Côte d'Ivoire is the nation's state energy company, Société Nationale d'Opérations Pétrolières de la Côte d'Ivoire (Petroci).

In addition to the CI-101 block, Eni owns stakes in four other blocks in the Ivorian deepwater.

They are CI-205, CI-501, CI-504 and CI-802, all with the same partner Petroci.

Baleine's initial gas production is destined to boost the domestic market, strengthening access to energy for the people of Côte d'Ivoire. 

Jan 12 (LNGJ) - Two LNG cargoes are scheduled to arrive in Germany before the end of January, according to shipping data. Both shipments are headed for the floating LNG import terminal at the North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven and are expected to berth on January 22 and January 30.

   One shipment is scheduled to arrive on the 174,100 cubic metres capacity “Diamond Gas Victoria” after being lifted from the Cameron LNG export plant in Louisiana on January 7. A second shipment is headed for Wilhelmshaven from Angola in southwest Africa on board the 154,950 cubic metres capacity vessel “Malanje” . The Angolan shipment was lifted on January 11.

Feb 11 (LNGJ) - The 154,950 cubic metres capacity LNG carrier “Malanje” is heading for the UK port of Milford Haven with a shipment of LNG from the southwest African nation of Angola. The vessel lifted its cargo on January 30 from the Angolan Soyo liquefaction plant located just south of the Congo River delta, according to shipping data. The African facility is operated by US major Chevron Corp. The “Malanje” is scheduled to arrive around February 14 at the Dragon import terminal at the Welsh port.

Indian liquefied natural gas imports rose 2.6 percent for the fiscal year to almost 20 million tonnes, though dropped for the month of March with cargoes arriving at a slower pace from main suppliers in Qatar, West Africa and Australia.

The shipments were received at India’s four operating import terminals at Dahej, Hazira and Dabhol near the West Coast port of Mumbai and at the new East Coast terminal at Kamarajar, 25 kilometres north of Chennai Port in Tamil Nadu.

The imports dropped in March by 14.4 percent to 1.63 million tonnes (2.20 billion cubic metres) from 1.90MT (2.47 Bcm) in March 2018.

The Asian nation’s shipments were also down in February 2019 and had amounted to 1.41MT compared with 1.56MT in February 2018.

However, the volumes for the full fiscal year to date at the end of March rose 2.6 percent to 19.98MT (27.01 Bcm) from 19.47MT in the previous fiscal year.

LNG was procured during the month by Petronet LNG, Gas Authority of India, Gujarat State Petroleum Corp., Reliance Industries, Bharat Petroleum Corp., Torrent Power and Indian Oil Corp., according to data from the Indian Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

Domestic natural gas output during March 2019 rose by 1.2 percent to 2.81 Bcm compared with 2.78 Bcm in the same month the previous year.

The cumulative production of natural gas for the 12 months of the fiscal year was up 0.7 percent to 32.87 Bcm compared with 32.64 Bcm in the previous fiscal year.

The Ministry said that LNG imports were regasified to make up 52 percent of the nation’s natural gas consumption during March as overall monthly gas usage totalled 4.57 Bcm.

The major natural gas consuming sectors for the combined LNG and domestic gas output were the fertilizer industry (29 percent), gas-fired power (21 percent), city-gas distribution (17 percent), refineries (13 percent) and petrochemicals (7 percent).

Among the LNG cargoes that were received at the Dahej terminal in March, there was one carried by the 172,000 cubic metres capacity carrier “Beidou Star”. The vessel unloaded a shipment on March 19 from the Gorgon plant on Barrow Island in Western Australia.

African cargoes unloaded at Dahej included one carried on the 160,500 cubic metres capacity vessel “Sonangol Sambizanga” from Angola in southwest Africa.

Among the Qatari cargoes, the 210,100 cubic metres capacity Q-Flex carrier “Al Ghariya” unloaded a shipment at Dahej on March 23 from Ras Laffan in Qatar.