LNG

GALP Energia, the Portuguese oil and gas company, has agreed to cash in its 10 percent stake in the Area 4 concession in the Rovuma Basin of Mozambique operated by Italy’s Eni by selling it to Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), the main energy operator in the United Arab Emirates.

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.

The East African nation of Tanzania said it was close to final agreement with a consortium comprising Shell, ExxonMobil and Norway’s Equinor along with several other licence partners in a $40 billion liquefied natural gas export project.

“The important negotiations with the government of Tanzania have concluded and the Host Government Agreement (HGA) and a Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) are expected to be signed soon,” said a statement from Shell’s office in the Tanzanian capital Dar Es Salam.

Charles Sangweni, the Chief Tanzanian government negotiator in the LNG talks, told local media that the main agreement had just to be approved by the Tanzanian Cabinet and Parliament and would involve total investments of $42Bln.

Sangweni, who is also Director General of the country’s Petroleum Upstream Regulatory Authority, said he hoped that the project’s first formal agreement could be signed before the end of July 2023.

Big step

“We are happy. It is a big step towards the implementation of the project although we still have a lot to do,” he added.

Tanzania's southern neighbour Mozambique became an LNG export in November 2022 with the start of a floating export project led by Italian major Eni while France's TotalEnergies is set to resume its onshore export development in the northeast Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado.

Shell operates Tanzania's Block 1 and Block 4, which hold 16 trillion cubic feet in estimated recoverable gas.

All three parties involved signed a framework agreement in June 2022 aimed at bringing closer the start of the project's construction.

Equinor and Shell, along with US major ExxonMobil and Pavilion Energy of Singapore, had previously discussed building the LNG export plant in the southern Lindi region of Tanzania.

Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan has said that the LNG project would play a crucial role in creating jobs and advancing economic developed not only in the Lindi and Mtwara regions but in the whole country.

Offshore blocks

Equinor has the operatorship of Tanzania's offshore Block 2, in which ExxonMobil also holds a stake and which is estimated to hold more than 20 Tcf of feed gas.

Equinor has said it also aimed initially to work on the LNG project with Shell, which operates Block 1 and Block 4.

Tanzania already uses some of its natural gas discoveries for power generation and to run manufacturing plants. It also plans to build a fertiliser plant.

The government has put the country's total estimated recoverable gas at close to 60 Tcf.

Analysts note that the development of Tanzania's offshore gas resources has been held up for years due to regulatory and political delays.

The other consortium partners are Indonesia’s MedcoEnergi and Pavilion along with Tanzania Petroleum Development Corp., the state-owned energy company.

The UK Court of Appeal has found in favour of a UK government export finance investment of $1.15 billion in the Mozambique onshore liquefied natural gas project being developed by French oil and gas major TotalEnergies.

Indian state company Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC), whose overseas arm holds a stake in the TotalEnergies-led Mozambique LNG export project, plans to raise by four-fold its domestic exploration and production acreage to find more natural gas and oil in India and cut the bill for imports.

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.

Sept 29 (LNG) - Bharat Petroleum Corp., one of three Indian stakeholders in the Mozambique LNG export project being developed by European major Total, said it signed an agreement to secure 1 million tonnes per of cargoes over a 15-year term. Bharat has a 10 percent stake in the venture to produce almost 13 MTPA in the first phase of development at the onshore plant in the northeast Cabo Delgado province.

   The Area 1 Rovuma Basin shareholding has Total as operator with a 26.5 percent participating interest alongside Mozambique state energy company ENH with 15 percent as well as Japanese and Thai shareholders. Bharat said it expected a start-up of the first Train in the second half of 2024 and full production during 2025.

French energy major Total said it planned to expand its Mozambique liquefied natural gas project with up to two additional processing Trains, taking the total up to four Trains.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. of the US has formally given the final investment decision and go-ahead for $20 billion of liquefied natural gas export project spending in Mozambique ahead of the Houston, Texas-based company’s takeover by Occidental Petroleum.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp., the company with US onshore assets and a valuable stake in Mozambique LNG, has received a rival take-over bid of $38 billion from Occidental Petroleum Corp. after accepting a $33Bln offer in mid-April from Chevron Corp.

The competition to acquire Anadarko is expected to force Chevron to consider whether it will make a counter-bid.

“Following unanimous approval from the company's board of directors on April 12, 2019, Anadarko entered into a definitive agreement with Chevron under which Chevron would acquire all of the outstanding shares of Anadarko in a stock and cash transaction valued at $33Bln, or $65 per share,” said Anadarko.

“In accordance with the terms of the Chevron Merger Agreement, and in consultation with its financial and legal advisors, Anadarko's board of directors will carefully review Occidental's proposal to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the company's stockholders,” added the company.

“The Anadarko board has not made any determination as to whether Occidental's proposal constitutes, or could reasonably be expected to result in, a superior proposal under the terms of the Chevron Merger Agreement,” said Anadarko.

“The Anadarko board expects to respond to Occidental's proposal upon completing its review, and accordingly reaffirms its existing recommendation of the transaction with Chevron,” it stated.

Anadarko said its stockholders were advised to take no action at this time.

Analysts pointed out that Chevron is a substantial LNG player and operates two world-class plants in Western Australia and would have fitted with Anadarko’s development plans for Mozambique LNG.

The $33Bln bid from Chevron and the $38Bln counter-offer from Occidental would both be valued at an additional $17Bln because of the scale of Anadarko’s debt commitments.

Anadarko said on April 12 it had accepted Chevron’s bid after rejecting an initial approach from Occidental that fell short of a full bid.

Occidental’s business has no LNG assets and is centred on US oil and gas as well as midstream, marketing and refining. Houston-based Occidental is also a major North American chemicals manufacture.

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 12.9 million tonnes per annum with feed-gas coming from the Golfinho-Atum gas fields located within Anadarko’s 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 Anadarko venture already 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.

Before the Chevron bid was accepted, Anadarko had been planning to seek long-term charters for around 16 LNG carriers to ship volumes to customers from Mozambique.

The Mozambique LNG project and natural gas assets would also add to Chevron’s global LNG given its volumes from Australia’s Gorgon plant on Barrow Island in Western Australia and the Wheatstone facility at Ashburton in the Pilbara region, both operated by Chevron.

Anadarko shareholders are being offered 0.3869 shares of Chevron and $16.25 in cash for each share, valuing the equity at a total of $33Bln.

Under the Occidental bid, Anadarko shareholders would receive $38.00 in cash and 0.6094 shares of Occidental common stock for each Anadarko share held.