LNG

US company Sycar said it would soon supply another liquefied natural gas shipment to the South American nation of Ecuador following the first LNG ISO container delivery earlier in January 2022.

French energy company Total and Apache Corp. of the US have made a substantial natural gas and oil discovery offshore the tiny nation of Suriname in the northeast corner of South America, the fourth find in the block, giving Suriname valuable energy resources instead of becoming an importer of LNG and relying on expensive oil products/

“We are very pleased to announce our fourth consecutive discovery in Block 58 at Keskesi, which confirms oil in the eastern portion of the block,” said John Christmann, Apache’s Chief Executive.

“We are excited to commence the appraisal program on our initial discoveries and extend our Block 58 exploration program to the north in 2021,” added Christmann.

Pursuant to the terms of its joint venture agreement, Apache transferred operatorship of Block 58 to Total on January 1, 2021.

Total said that the discoveries in the Keskesi East-1 well in Block 58 were “significant”.

“This follows previous discoveries at Maka Central, Sapakara West and Kwaskwasi,” added the French major.

The discoveries come as a growing number of Latin American and Caribbean nations are opting for LNG to meet their energy and power needs.

Total explained that the Keskesi well was drilled by a water depth of about 725 metres and encountered a total of 63 metres of net pay of hydrocarbons.

This comprised of 58 metres net black oil, volatile oil, and gas pay in good quality Campano-Maastrichtian reservoirs, along with 5 metres of net volatile oil pay in Santonian reservoirs, where wireline logging has just been performed.

Drilling is still ongoing for deeper Neocomian aged targets.

The Suriname discoveries are in the Guiana Basin, situated on the northeast of the Continent and includes parts of the offshore areas and coastal plains of French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana and eastern Venezuela.

The Basin is characterized by its passive-margin setting, dating back from the Cretaceous age and is similar to most other Atlantic Margin Basins, such as those in West Africa offshore Mauritania and Senegal where FLNG projects are proceeding.

Analysts note that exploration results elsewhere in the Atlantic Margin basins have demonstrated that the post-rift margins of West Africa and Brazil were characterised by comparable petroleum systems.

“We are delighted to announce this new discovery, which confirms this first exploration campaign as a full success and adds to the proven resource base” said Kevin McLachlan, Senior Vice President Exploration at Total.

“We are also excited, as new operator of the block, to start the appraisal operations designed to characterize the 2020 discoveries, while in parallel start a second exploration campaign on this prolific block in 2021,” added McLachlan.

Total assumed operatorship of Block 58 on January 1st, 2021, with a 50 percent working interest.

Upon completion of the operations on Keskesi East-1, the “Noble Sam Croft” drillship will be released.

Belgian company Fluxys, whose assets include the Zeebrugge LNG import terminal and a stake in Dunkirk LNG in France as well as the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, has agreed to buy a minority stake from the equity fund, EIG Global Energy Partners (EIG), in a gas system operator in Brazil.

The deal is for part of the Brazilian utility, Transportadora Brasileira Gasoduto Bolívia-Brasil (TBG), which is the owner and operator of a 2,600-kilometres pipeline system in the southern part of the South American country.

Fluxys said the completion of the equity transfer was expected to take another two months.

Both companies said they would also explore further strategic cooperation in Brazil’s gas infrastructure market.

“Fluxys is looking forward to become an industrial partner in TBG as it is a key energy infrastructure for Brazil and the company’s management and workforce are highly experienced,” stated Fluxys.

The Fluxys infrastructure group employs 1,200 people in Europe in its growing gas transmission and storage and LNG terminal businesses.

Its associated companies across Europe operate 9,000km of pipeline and its assets import 29 billion cubic metres of regasified LNG.

It is also a shareholder in the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, an 878-kilometres transportation system bringing Caspian natural gas from Azerbaijan to Greece, Albania, via the Adriatic Sea and Italy.

“TBG is an excellent fit for Fluxys in its strategy to complement its development in Europe with industrial partnerships in gas infrastructure outside Europe in stable markets with growth opportunities,” said Fluxys.

“Brazil in this respect has high energy demand growth prospects and natural gas allows it to meet this need jointly with renewable energy sources,” the company added.

The Belgian grid operator said the partnership with TBG was an important step in the roll-out of Fluxys’ growth strategy outside Europe.

“Fluxys will open a branch in Brazil shortly for managing its Brazilian interests as well as its further business development in the country and the wider Latin America region,” Fluxys stated.

Sycar, a US company based in Florida, said it was planning to develop a liquefied natural gas import terminal for the South American nation of Ecuador with construction of facilities scheduled to start in 2021 to support a floating LNG venture and eventually an onshore terminal.

The South American nation of Chile has imported 2.23 million tonnes of LNG during the first 10 months of the year, down 5.7 percent on the same period of 2018 as pipeline gas supplies from Argentina have provided competition.