LNG

Côte d'Ivoire is continuing to benefit from the ramp-up of the Baleine oil and gas field as part of a world-class hub of oil, pipeline natural gas and LNG exports and imports being built out to improve economic prosperity in West Africa from Mauritania in the North to Angola in the South.

Côte d’Ivoire President Alassane Ouattara and head of Italy’s Eni announced a major offshore discovery of oil, natural and condensate with many development options for the resources.

The large discovery in block CI-205 has been named the Calao field and is the West African nation’s second-largest ever.

Eni added that only the Baleine field discovered by Eni in September 2021 was bigger.

Côte d’Ivoire President Ouattara and Eni Chief Executive Claudio Descalzi met in the capital Abidjan on March 7 to discuss the successful results of the exploration well called Murene 1X in the Calao find.

The Prime Minister of Côte d’Ivoire, Robert Beugré Mambé, and the Minister of Mines, Petroleum, and Energy, Mamadou Sangafowa-Coulibaly, also participated in the meeting.

Resource boost

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.

The nation’s regional neighbours to the north, Senegal and Mauritania, are currently developing floating LNG projects, while among its southern neighbours, Nigeria is an established world-scale LNG and oil exporting nation, while Cameroon has a small FLNG project in operation.

Additionally, Eni itself has just brought onstream an FLNG project in the Republic of Congo and the first cargo was shipped to Italy.

The countries of Africa intend to develop their oil and natural gas resources for the benefit of their citizens as Western nations have done for more than 100 years despite opposition to African hydrocarbon projects from environmental elites in the developed countries of Europe and North America.

The Calao discovery was described by Eni as a “very significant” one for the country.

Drilling operations took place about 45 kilometres (28 miles) offshore in block CI-205, reaching a depth of 5,000 metres in water depths of around 2,200 metres.

Analysis

“The well encountered light oil, gas, and condensates in various intervals of Cenomanian age characterized by good to excellent permeability values,” said Eni.

“Preliminary assessments indicate potential resources ranging between 1.0 billion and 1.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent,” said the Milan-based company.

Eni operates the block in partnership with the Société Nationale d'Opérations Pétrolières de la Côte d'Ivoire, also known as Petroci.

President Ouattara and Eni CEO Descalzi discussed the appraisal and development plans for the discovery, including Eni’s commitment to meet the country’s domestic needs.

Eni has operated in the Côte d’Ivoire since 2015. In addition to block CI-205, Eni holds participating interests in five other blocks in Ivorian deep waters: CI-101, CI-401, CI-501, CI-801, and CI-802, all in partnership with Petroci .

Eni currently has an equity production of hydrocarbons totalling about 22,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from the Baleine field, which started production in August 2023. 

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) has signed an accord with Chinese shipyard Wison Heavy Industry for the construction of a floating liquefied natural gas production unit to be deployed offshore Nigeria.

Belgian shipping company Exmar, which chartered a regasification barge to the Netherlands and sold a floating LNG production vessel to Italy’s Eni for deployment offshore  the Republic of Congo, is completing its take-over by Saverex NV, the holding company of the family of Exmar Executive Chairman Nicolas Saverys and additionally reported solid third-quarter earnings.

“The Congo LNG project is entering a new phase with ENI’s ‘Tango FLNG’ and Exmar’s ‘Excalibur’ heading for Congo for installation and start-up by December 2023,” Exmar stated.

The Antwerp, Belgium-based shipping and infrastructure company reported third-quarter revenues of $345.4 million, up from $95.6M in the same three months of 2022.

Exmar said adjusted gross earnings amounted to $140.5M compared with $52.6M in the prior-year quarter.

Eemshaven LNG

“The increase in revenue in the first nine months of 2023 versus 2022 reflects the full impact of the employment of the FSRU ‘Eemshaven LNG’ and the LNG carrier ‘Excalibur’ as well as the engineering, procurement and conversion works for the Congo LNG project with Eni,” Exmar explained.

The company pointed out that September 2022 gross earnings (EBITDA) were positively impacted by a $315.6M gain on the sale of “Tango FLNG” to Eni.

Exmar noted that on October 21 Eni, Dry Docks World Dubai and Exmar celebrated the “sail away” of the “Tango FLNG” and Excalibur floating storage unit (FSU) vessels from Dubai to Congo for use in Eni’s LNG project.

“Exmar with its expertise in LNG infrastructure and serving as the engineering, procurement and conversion contractor for this project, has designed the mooring system (Exmar Offshore Company) and performed the refurbishments on both vessels at Dry Docks World yard in Dubai,” the company explained.

The LNG carrier “Excalibur” is on hire to Eni Congo for use as the FSU in the Congo LNG project.

The FSRU “Eemshaven LNG” is on charter to a unit of Dutch utility Gasunie called the EemsEnergyTerminal BV.

“The FSRU has been running steadily at lower capacity during summer time and is now scaling up for the winter season,” Exmar stated.

Shipping earnings

Exmar added that shipping division revenues rose to $110.6M versus $108.7M in the same quarter last year.

In its shipping division, Exmar retains an extensive fleet including three Very Large Gas Carriers, 17 mid-sized liquefied petroleum gas carriers, two newbuilds and 10 pressurised carriers.

Exmar said that Time Charter Equivalent Rates for Midsized vessels rose to $25,656 per day from $23,916 per day.

The VLGC TCE rates increased to $42,229 per from $39,091 a day and rates for pressurised tankers of 5,000 cubic metres capacity rose to $9,097 per day from $8,530 per day.

The company also made an investment in the drilling sector with Vantage Drilling International, buying a stake of 11.5 percent.

“Vantage is a player in offshore oil and natural gas well drilling services, with a fleet comprising of two ultra-deep-water drill ships and two premium jack-up rigs, listed on the US OTC market under VTDRF,” Exmar said.

“This strategic investment is driven by promising value due to continued under-investment in the offshore drilling market. After over two decades, Exmar re-enters the drilling sector, further expanding its role in the energy value chain,” the company added.

On the takeover bid, Exmar said that the reopening of the acceptance period of the voluntary public takeover bid launched by Saverex for all shares and share option in Exmar ended on Friday, September 15. 

Due to this process, Saverex holds a total of more than 47.81 million shares in Exmar, representing 80.36 percent of the outstanding shares.

The shares in Exmar held by Nicolas Saverys (7,924 shares) and by Exmar (2.02M shares) as well as by Saverex and persons affiliated amount to over 49.83M shares, representing 83.76 percent of Exmar.

Sept 20 (LNGJ) - Belgian shipping company Exmar, which chartered a regasification barge to the Netherlands and sold a floating LNG production vessel to Italy’s Eni for deployment in Africa, is set to be taken over by Saverex NV, the holding company of the family of Exmar Executive Chairman Nicolas Saverys.

   Exmar, based in Antwerp, had reopened the acceptance period to September 15 for the voluntary public takeover bid launched by Saverex for all shares and share options not already controlled by the bidder. As a result, Saverex now owns 47.81 million shares, representing 80.36 percent of Exmar. Taking into account the shares held by Chairman Saverys and Exmar itself Saverex controls 49.83M shares, representing 83.76 percent of Exmar. “The payment of the bid price for the shares (€12.10 per share and €2.48 per share option) offered during the voluntary reopening is scheduled for October 2, 2023,” said Exmar.

July 14 (LNGJ) - Belgian shipping company Exmar, which chartered a regasification barge to the Netherlands and sold a floating LNG production vessel to Italy’s Eni for deployment in Africa, has altered share totals and schedules to progress with the takeover of Exmar by Saverex NV, the holding company of the family of Exmar Executive Chairman Nicolas Saverys.

   A statement said the initial acceptance period of the voluntary and conditional public takeover bid had an initial acceptance of 77.76 percent of the outstanding shares. Saverex has, therefore, decided to waive the 95 percent acceptance threshold and was proceeding with the bid. The payment of the bid price for the shares offered during the initial acceptance period is still scheduled for July 27. Saverex has also decided voluntarily to reopen the bid from Monday 28th August until Friday15th September 2023 at 16:00 (Belgian time).

The Republic of the Congo has formally launched two floating liquefied natural gas production projects that may make the West African nation an LNG exporter by as early as this year as African nations assume leadership of the FLNG sector to monetize their resources backed by Western oil majors.

Feb 23 (LNGJ) - Eni, the Italian oil and gas major, reported increased annual net profits of €13.31Bln ($16.08Bln) compared with €5.82Bln in the previous year. However, profits plunged in the fourth quarter to €550 million from €3.52Bln in the same three months of 2021 because of special items, including reduced fair-valued commodity derivatives of €1.1Bln, asset impairments of €900M and an extraordinary solidarity tax of €700M.

   Eni’s LNG sales in 2022 dropped by 14 percent to 9.4 million tonnes from 10.9MT in 2021, impacted by lower supply from Russia and Nigeria. In LNG project activities, Eni noted that in November the first loading of LNG produced from the Coral Sul FLNG project offshore Mozambique was completed. In December, as part of the Congo LNG project from Eni’s gas reserves in block Marine XII, a turn-key contract was signed to build, install and commission an FLNG vessel. Eni will pair the “Tango FLNG” vessel purchased earlier from Exmar to speed up development plans. Congo LNG output should reach 3 MTPA in 2025.

Oct 28 (LNGJ) - Italian energy major Eni posted an almost five-fold increase in third-quarter net profits to €5.86 ($5.87M) compared with €1.20Bln in the same three months of 2021. “We plan to replace at least 50 percent of Russian gas flows this winter, leveraging on our broad and diversified reserve base, our long-standing relationships with producing countries and our growing presence in LNG,” said Eni Chief Executive Claudio Descalzi.

   “In the quarter we further enhanced our position in the gas supply chain via our exploration activities, the upstream acquisition of BP assets in Algeria and, on the midstream side, the purchase of the ‘Tango FLNG’ liquefaction vessel as part of the Congo gas valorization project,” added the CEO.

New Fortress Energy Inc., the expanding LNG terminals, production, shipping and power assets owner, plans to hold a floating LNG investor day at the Kiewit Offshore Services shipyard near Corpus Christi in Texas.

New Fortress has chosen the energy subsidiary of Omaha, Nebraska-based construction giant Kiewit as its partner for the building of FLNG units on the US Gulf Coast and the presentation event will be held from 10:00 am Central Time on November 22.

“Specializing in the fabrication and integration of offshore projects, the 555-acre KOS facility is home to NFE’s ‘Fast LNG’ program and the ongoing conversion of marine infrastructure into floating liquefaction units,” explained NFE in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Wes Edens, Chairman and Chief Executive of NFE, said he looked forward to hosting the event at the Texas facility.

“We expect to achieve mechanical completion of our first FLNG unit in March 2023 and deploy FLNG 1 into operation by mid-year, with additional units to follow soon thereafter,” explained Edens.

Skilled workforce

“Utilizing a highly skilled workforce on the US Gulf Coast, we have developed an efficient and repeatable construction process - essentially an FLNG factory - that substantially reduces the cost and time to build incremental liquefaction capacity to meet the urgent needs of the global energy markets,” declared the NFE CEO.

New York-based NFE also recently signed an agreement with Mexico’s national energy company Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) to form a strategic partnership including a floating LNG project in the Gulf of Mexico.

The agreement involves the joint development of the Lakach deepwater natural gas field for Pemex to supply natural gas to Mexico’s onshore domestic market and for NFE to produce LNG for export to global markets.

The US company will produce the LNG using its “Fast LNG” vessels to be built at the Kiewit yard.

NFE’s “Fast LNG” pairs modular, midsize liquefaction technology with jack-up rigs or similar floating infrastructure to enable a lower cost and faster deployment schedules.

Louisiana FLNG

The US company is additionally involved in other FLNG ventures, including one offshore the US Gulf state of Louisiana and another offshore the Republic of Congo in West Africa.

NFE is additionally advancing LNG-for-power projects in nations like Mexico, Nicaragua and Brazil as well as in the Caribbean.

NFE also said recently that it had entered a joint venture valued at $2 billion with New York-based asset management firm Apollo relating to floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) in the LNG sector and this opened up a long-term financing arrangement.

The July 2022 deal involves NFE selling LNG infrastructure vessels it owns to the newly formed joint company whereby 80 percent would be held by Apollo funds and 20 percent by NFE.

That transaction would create a global marine infrastructure platform underpinned by long-term contracts, benefitting from NFE's LNG downstream operations and development activities, as well as Apollo's leading investment and maritime experience.

LNG FSRUs

Outwith the Kiewit Offshore Services shipyard plans NFE has an existing fleet that came from its acquisition in 2021 of Golar LNG Partners and its assorted FSRUs and LNG carriers.

The 11-vessel portfolio of the venture consists of six FSRUs, two conventional LNG carriers and three floating storage units (FSUs).

As part of the Apollo transaction, NFE has agreed to charter 10 of the 11 of the vessels from the Apollo-controlled venture for a period of up to 20 years.

Apollo is a high-growth, global alternative asset management business focusing on select investment strategies.