LNG

French energy major TotalEnergies is considering the 2023 restart date of the onshore liquefied natural gas project in Mozambique based on a visit by executives to the southeast African nation, which is already enjoying the economic benefits of the start-up of the Coral South floating export venture in the southern part of the Rovuma Basin.

The company chairman and chief executive, Patrick Pouyanné, is expected to be among the party planning to travel to Cabo Delgado province where the project is located.

The Mozambican authorities said they were looking forward to welcoming TotalEnergies executives to the country as usual as they work on relaunching the $20 billion venture.

If the TotalEnergies LNG project goes ahead it would help increase Mozambique’s gross domestic product by around $67 billion, according to economists.

The TotalEnergies LNG project is located on the Afungi Peninsula and will use natural gas from the Rovuma Basin Area 1 licence to produce LNG to be transported worldwide.

The onshore Mozambique LNG project has been hindered by insecurity in the region for the last couple of years.

Construction of the plant had to be halted on April 26, 2021, when TotalEnergies declared “force majeure” because of attacks north of the plant location by an Islamist extremist group.

Project delays

TotalEnergies had already delayed first LNG production at the liquefaction plant by two years to 2026.

Since the halt to the onshore project a separate floating LNG plant has come on stream offshore Mozambique.

Italian energy company Eni brought the “Coral-Sul FLNG” production vessel on stream at the end of 2022 and the first cargo was shipped in mid-November 2022.

Eni, as upstream operator of the separate Area 4 licence resources, has started the project with liquefaction capacity of 3.4 million tonnes per annum.

The TotalEnergies-run project onshore has the potential to produce round 20 MTPA of LNG.

A third development, the Rovuma LNG project, may also recover momentum in 2023 for the Area 4 licence group to produce a further 15 MTPA per annum from their resources,

However, analysts said that the shareholders in Rovuma LNG, including the US major ExxonMobil, are unlikely to take a final investment decision on the venture until the TotalEnergies project advances in the next year.

Warren Buffett, one of America’s most followed investors, has taken his stake in Occidental Petroleum to more than 19 percent, in a varied portfolio of energy shares and stakes acquired by the man known as the “Oracle of Omaha”.

Sept 20 (LNGJ) - Mozambique said the offshore Coral South floating LNG production project is still scheduled for start-up in 2022, with the FLNG hull scheduled to arrive from South Korea before the end of 2021. However, the Mozambique onshore project being developed by the joint venture led by French major TotalEnergies from Rovuma Basin Area 1 resources is still paused because of insecurity in the north of the country.

   “Coral South commercial production remains a target for 2022. This is the very first step, but a significant step for Mozambique to join the LNG producing countries,” said the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Ernesto Max Elias Tonela. The FLNG project will produce 3.4 million tonnes per annum from the Rovuma Basin Area 4 joint venture being developed by Italian energy company Eni and partners. UK major BP has signed a 20-year agreement to purchase all of the Coral South output.

Rand Merchant Bank, the South African investment banking arm of the largest financial services group in Africa, FirstRand Ltd, has joined the lending consortium for the Mozambique LNG export project.

ExxonMobil Chairman and Chief Executive Darren W. Woods said the US major was still committed to its Mozambique liquefied natural gas project as well as to other ventures amid further delays, while cutting back immediately in US Permian Basin production.

PetroChina, the Hong Kong-listed affiliate of state-owned China National Petroleum Corp., recorded a 6 percent increase in annual revenues to 2,520 billion Chinese yuan ($350.8Bln) but net profits fell 14 percent and it disclosed plans to renegotiate some natural gas supply contracts to improve profitability.

Anadarko Petroleum, the US company that has agreed to be taken over by Occidental Petroleum and whose liquefied natural gas assets will be sold to French major Total, has awarded the main engineering contract for the onshore Mozambique LNG plant to a consortium of companies from Italy, the US and Japan.

Italian energy company Eni and US major ExxonMobil said shareholders in the Area 4 licence offshore Mozambique have secured sufficient liquefied natural gas offtake commitments to enable them to move forward to schedule a final investment decision in 2019.