The Government of Ghana has sponsored the training of 149 Ghanaians to enable them to acquire technical skills for employment in the country’s upstream petroleum sector.
The six months of hands-on technician training was funded with an amount of Gh¢5.1 million, with the training of each person costing $7,500.
The trainees graduated on Friday, April 22, 2022, in Takoradi.
Speaking at the graduation ceremony, the Chief Executive of the Petroleum Commission, Egbert Faibille Jnr. said the training programme has produced internationally certified professionals who can work in various aspects of the petroleum industry.
“Of the 149 persons that have graduated, 43 graduated as City and Guilds International Vocational Qualification (IVQ) level 3 Mechanical Technicians, 22 as IVQ level 3 Electrical Technicians, 44 as IVQ level 3 Process Technicians and 41 as IVQ level 3 Instrumentation Technicians. It cost the Petroleum Commission US$7,500 for each of the graduates in question. In total, the commission spent GH¢5.1 million for the entire training program.
“The best way graduates can show appreciation is to commit to working in Ghana and help reduce the cost of Oil and Gas Production in the country so that the IOC and government will spend less in exploration and production of oil from the standpoint of job role localization,” he added.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Ghana’s Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has held a day’s capacity building workshop for a section of Ghanaian journalists to equip them with the knowledge of the role of the Commission.
The journalists, selected from various media houses comprising both electronic and print, are under the umbrella of the Commission’s Media Fellowship which was recently launched in Accra, the capital of Ghana.
They were taken through several presentations by officials of the Commission.
Alhaji Abukari Jabaru, Director of Regional Operations at PURC
Alhaji Abukari Jabaru, Director of Regional Operations on Complaint Resolution Procedure, walked the journalists through the various steps that are taken before arriving at a resolution.
He said when a formal complaint is received from a complainant, for example, the first step the Commission takes is to visit the site of the complainant and conduct preliminary investigations.
After the preliminary investigations, the Commission begins mediation processes, if it becomes necessary, and finally starts a formal hearing where a panel is constituted to make recommendations to the Board for acceptance or otherwise.
A trend analysis of complaints lodged to the Commission and resolved from 2016 to 2021 showed that there was a decrease in the number of complaints lodged from 3,202 in 2016 to 2,713 in 2017, representing a 15.27 per cent decrease.
However, this increased to 5,226 in 2018, representing a 92.63 per cent increase.
The complaints again increased to 9,550 in 2019 by 82.74 per cent.
This increase, he noted, was a result of innovation introduced that allowed complainants to lodge complaints via WhatsApp.
He noted that another reason that accounted for the increase in complaints in 2019 was the problem between ECG and Kroboland.
There was, however, a decrease in complaints lodged from 9,550 in 2019 to 7,067 in 2020 representing a decrease of 26 per cent and this was mainly due to the outbreak of Covid-19 and its related lockdown of the country as well as restrictions on movement.
In 2021, complaints lodged with the Commission increased to 10,987 from 7,067 in 2020, representing an increase of 55.47 per cent.
He said about 10,701 out of the total complaints have been resolved.
Dr. Simon Akorli, Director responsible for Regulatory Economics at PURC
The Director in charge of Regulatory Economics at the PURC, Dr. Simon Akorli, also made a presentation on PURC Tariff Setting.
He walked the journalists through the factors the Commission considers before arriving at a tariff for both water and electricity.
He noted that the biggest challenge facing the country, as far as utilities are concerned, is the tariff structure.
He said unlike in Uganda where the tariff has been structured in a way that makes both residential and industrial consumers pay the same rates for consumption of utilities, Ghana’s tariff structure is such that residential consumers pay less while industries pay higher.
Kevin Kwao, Head of ICT, PURC
The very interactive workshop ended with a presentation by Mr. Kevin Kwao, Head of ICT, PURC, on the Commission’s Database Management System.
Dr. Ishmael Ackah, Executive Secretary of Public Utilities Regulatory Commission
Executive Secretary for the Commission, Dr. Ishmael Ackah, who opened the workshop, urged the participants to take a keen interest and learn.
He further called on them to work closely with the Commission for the benefit of all stakeholders.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Ghana’s leading indigenous Oil Marketing Company, GOIL Company Limited, has donated fifty hospital beds to the 37 Military Hospital in Accra, the capital of Ghana.
The beds were procured at the cost of Gh¢250,000 by the oil company and presented to the hospital by the Group CEO, Osei Kwame Prempeh, who was accompanied by some of the company’s staff.
The 37 Military Hospital is one of the referral hospitals in West Africa and receives hundreds of patients, thereby, putting pressure on the facility.
Speaking to energynewsafrica.com, Group CEO and Managing Director of GOIL Company Limited, Osei Kwame Prempeh said he visited the hospital some weeks ago and while he was being conducted around the facility by officials, they informed him of the needs of the hospital.
Hearing that, he said he took their needs to the management of GOIL, who decided to use part of their Corporate Social Responsibility funds to procure the beds to equip the hospital to prevent situations where patients have been turned away because of shortages of beds.
Osei Kwame Prempeh said GOIL has been supporting the hospital with donations in different ways, recalling the supply of some Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) to the hospital during the Covid-19 era.
The Group CEO said although GOIL cannot solve all the problems of the hospital, it would continue to support the facility no matter how small it would be.
He used the occasion to call on fuel consumers to keep patronising the services of GOIL, reminding Ghanaians to see the company like theirs and also bearing in mind that any profit the company makes is invested in the country to address the social and economic issues.
Commenting on the gesture, the Commanding Officer of 37 Military Hospital, Brig Gen Azumah Bugri, who received the beds on behalf of the hospital and other officers, commended the Management of GOIL for the donation and noted that beds are critical in health care delivery.
He said some patients go to the hospital for a day’s visit for observation while others go and are admitted.
He said in all scenarios, beds are needed for proper examination to be done on the patients and treatment.
He said the beds would go a long way to help the hospital.
Samples of the bedSource: https://energynewsafrica.com
Over 100 Nigerians have been killed in an explosion that occurred at an illegal bunkering site on April 23, 2022.
The Saturday night explosion occurred at the site located in the Ohaji-Egbema local government area of Imo State in the Abaezi forest that straddles the border of the two states.
“The fire outbreak occurred at an illegal bunkering site and it affected over 100 people who were burnt beyond recognition,” the state Commissioner for Petroleum Resources, Goodluck Oprah, told journalists.
The Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre said several vehicles that were in a queue to buy illegal fuel were simmered in the blast.
According to reports, Nigerian police are currently looking for the owner of the illegal oil refinery.
Ifeanyi Nnaji of the National Emergency Management Agency told BBC that the number killed stood at 109 as of the time of reporting.
“We learnt many bodies are in nearby bushes and forests as some illegal operators and their patrons scampered for safety,” he said.
“The Rivers State governor has made a push recently to stamp out illegal refining in Rivers so it has to move to the fringes and neighbouring states. In the last month or two, there were several raids and some security agents involved were tackled,” Ledum Mitee, former president of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop), said.
At least 25 people including children, were killed in an explosion and fire at another illegal refinery in Rivers State in October last year.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Ghana’s national oil company, GNPC, has appointed Opoku Ahweneeh-Danquah as the acting Chief Executive Officer as the CEO of the corporation, Dr K.K Sarpong exits the corporation today, April 22, 2022.
Before the appointment, Opoku Ahweneeh-Danquah was the Deputy Chief Executive Officer responsible for technical operations.
A letter signed by the Board Chairman, Freddie Blay, wished the outgoing CEO well in his future endeavours while urging the staff of the corporation to accord Opoku Ahweneeh-Danquah the necessary support.
The move to appoint him as CEO has stirred anger in Ghana’s seat of government, the Jubilee House.
The appointment, according to sources within the presidency, was influenced by his cousin, Nana Asante Bediatuo, Secretary to the President, and Freddie Blay, Board Chair of GNPC.
Many at the seat of government are worried over the deliberate move by the duo because of claims by critics of President Nana Akufo-Addo that he is running a family and friends government.
According to energynewsafrica.com’s source, the attempt by the GNPC Board Chair and the President’s Secretary to get Opoku Ahwenneh-Danquah appointed is purely based on their intention to remote control him to get what they want.
Sources within the government said Freddie Blay has had a tough time with the outgoing CEO, Dr. K.K Sarpong, who appears to be ‘stubborn’ when it comes to making certain demands and, therefore, wants someone he can easily control.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
The Moroccan government has awarded seven concessions to independent power producers (IPPs) to develop 333MWp of solar photovoltaic capacity as part of the Noor PV II programme.
North Africa wants to catch up in terms of renewable energy production.
The concessions were awarded to five independent power producers (IPPs), with the French company, Voltalia, awarded the largest lots.
Its Moroccan subsidiary will build two solar power plants.
The largest, with a capacity of 69MWp, will be located in Ain Beni Mathar in the Oriental Region.
Voltalia, Morocco’s second solar power plant, with an expected capacity of 48MWp, will be built in the north-east of the Kingdom.
The Taqa Group is also doing well with two solar photovoltaic plants of 48MWp each.
Its subsidiary, Taqa Morocco, based in Casablanca, will build its facilities in Sidi Bennour in the Casablanca-Settat Region and Kelaa Sraghna in the Marrakech-Safi Region.
For its part, the Emirati IPP Amea Power will build two solar power plants of 36MWp each near the city of Taroudant in the region of Souss-Massa and El Hajeb, a municipality in the region of Fez-Meknes.
Enel Green Power, the subsidiary of the Italian giant, Enel, will build a 48MWp solar power plant in Bejaad in the province of Khouribga.
According to MASEN, these sites have been chosen based on several criteria including the suitability of solar photovoltaic technology, accessibility, topography and the socio-economic impact of the project on the territory of implementation.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Africa focused oil and gas firm, Tullow Oil, is planning to invest a total of $1.6 billion to develop the Jubilee and TEN oilfields offshore the Republic of Ghana in the next five years spanning 2022 and 2026.
By 2022, Tullow is spending $350 million to develop new infrastructure and new wells to increase production at the Jubilee field.
At the TEN oilfield, the company plans to drill two important but strategic wells that will define its plan for the field.
However, beyond 2022, Tullow intends to spend $700 million to develop the Jubilee oilfield while the TEN oilfields will witness an investment of $550 million from 2023 to 2026.
Speaking to a section of journalists in Accra, the capital of Ghana, the CEO of Tullow Oil Plc, Rahul Dhur said these investments are aimed at increasing production at Jubilee and also repositioning TEN for the future growth.
According to him, Tullow is building subsea infrastructure such as pipelines to accelerate the development of the Jubilee and TEN oilfields.
“A lot of the spending we are doing this year is on infrastructure particularly Jubilee South-East Jubilee North-East. This will help us to sustain production,” he said
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
A couple at Kongo in the Upper East Region of Ghana was on Wednesday morning electrocuted after an electric wire they were drying their clothes on touched a live wire.
The couple, Joseph Bike and Mary Bike, according to Graphic Online, died instantly.
The report said the wife, Mary, was first to be electrocuted and in his attempt to rescue his wife, Joseph was also shocked to death.
According to the report, Mary went out to draw water from a nearby borehole and was unfortunately caught by the wire as she was in the process of pouring the water into a water reservoir.
Neighbours said it appeared Mary was unaware that the wire they regularly used as their drying line was live with electrical current.
She reportedly fell instantly with the water.
The incident attracted relatives and neighbours who dashed the couple to the Ayamfoya Memorial Hospital where they were pronounced dead on arrival.
Their bodies have been deposited at the morgue of the health facility for preservation and autopsy.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
The Biden Administration will release over $385 million to states to help Americans with their home energy costs through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), the White House said on Thursday, as President Joe Biden is looking to tame the soaring prices of gasoline and energy amid international prices at multi-year highs.
The latest funding, to be made available by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), adds to $4.5 billion in the American Rescue Plan for LIHEAP.
In total, the U.S. Administration would be providing more than $8.3 billion in LIHEAP assistance to reduce heating and cooling costs for low-income Americans this year, which is the largest investment in a single year since the program was established in 1981, the White House said.
LIHEAP assists eligible low-income households with their heating and cooling energy costs, bill payment assistance, energy crisis assistance, weatherization, and energy-related home repairs.
The Administration is scrambling to lower home energy costs and gasoline prices for Americans as international oil prices – the largest factor in determining the price at the pump – hit $100 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Gasoline prices in the U.S. hit a fresh multi-year high in March at over $4.30 per gallon.
The Biden Administration announced at the end of March it would release 180 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) over six months “to respond to Putin’s price hike at the pump.”
Apart from the massive strategic petroleum release—which analysts say will not help solve the structural deficit in the oil market with insufficient investments in recent years—the U.S. Administration announced earlier this month that the Environmental Protection Agency would issue an emergency waiver to allow E15 gasoline – a higher-ethanol containing gasoline typically banned in the summer – to be sold during this summer “in order to increase fuel supply.”
Source: Oilprice.com
Germany is moving “as fast as possible” to end its reliance on Russian energy, but it will take time, the country’s finance minister has said.
“We have to be patient,” Christian Lindner said.
By contrast, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had earlier said Germany would end oil imports by the end of the year, with gas following.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has criticised Germany for failing to curb Russian energy imports.
He described energy payments as “blood money”.
Proceeds from the sale of Russian oil and gas amount to around $1bn (£770m) a day, undermining international efforts to put economic pressure on President Vladimir Putin to end the war.
The US has already banned Russian oil imports and the UK plans to phase them out by the end of the year.
But EU countries are more heavily dependent on Russian energy, with Germany currently buying around 25% of its oil and 40% of its gas from Russia.
Mr Lindner told the BBC that his country was working to implement an embargo on Russian energy but that he preferred using sanctions which “hurt [Putin] more than us”.
He said a sudden halt to Russian energy imports could see the physical shutdown of German producers such as manufacturers and carmakers.
Earlier this week, German economic institutes warned that immediately halting Russian imports would spark a sharp recession in Europe’s biggest economy by 2023.
“We are willing to stop all energy imports from Russia, it’s just a matter of time,” said Mr Lindner, who is leader of the liberal Free Democrats, one constituent of Germany’s coalition government.
He insisted that any calculation on Vladimir Putin’s part that Germany would continue to rely on Russian energy was “wrong”.
“In the end, we don’t want to have any further business with Putin,” he said.
However his stance was at odds with statements made by Germany’s foreign minister, Ms Baerbock, who is Green Party co-leader.
Ms Baerbock said Germany would halve Russian oil imports by the summer and eliminate them altogether by the end of the year, to be followed quickly by a reduction in Russian gas imports.
Germany’s finance minister was keen to sound tough on Russia and appears acutely aware of the criticism levelled at his country for dragging its feet over a full energy embargo on the Kremlin.
His basic message was – it is coming, but not quite yet, because it is impossible to enact immediately and would probably lead to shutdowns of large swathes of the German economy.
President Zelensky used a BBC interview last week to demand an immediate embargo on Russia’s lucrative oil trade, accusing those sending euros and dollars to Kremlin-controlled oil giants of “trading in blood”. He singled out Germany alongside Hungary for blocking EU action.
Source:BBC
The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) in the Republic of Nigeria is seeking an out-of-court settlement in a suit filed against it by Musa Abdullahi Esq, a legal practitioner and resident of Suleja Local Government, on behalf of other residents over electricity supply in their area.
Counsel for the power distributor, Morayo Yedoni, according to nannews.ng, informed Justice Mariya Ismail of a High Court in Niger State sitting in Suleja, the decision of AEDC shortly after the case was called.
She told the court that her client would like to settle the matter out of court.
The plaintiff urged the court to look at the faces of the people who came to court for the proceedings to understand how the people of Suleja felt about AEDC’s activities.
Consequently, Justice Ismail adjourned the case to May 30, 2022.
It would be recalled that energynewsafrica.com reported that the plaintiff, Abdullahi, had filed a writ on March 4, 2022, demanding an N200 million($480,000)compensation over alleged poor services.
He also prayed the court to give an order, in the alternative, directing a six-month bill-free period for the plaintiff as compensation for all the period of unjustified power interruption.
The plaintiff posed six questions for the defendant to respond to and sought nine reliefs from the court.
Among the reliefs, the plaintiff is seeking is a declaration that the defendant, having failed in their basic duty of provision of power supply safely and reliably, without any tangible justification, the plaintiff is entitled to damages and compensation because the charges/rates are under the guise of bills are imposed by the defendant on the plaintiff which the plaintiff pays.
An order directing the Defendant to pay Plaintiff (1) general damages to the tune of two hundred million Naira only (N200,000,000) for the wrongful, unjustifiable and unwarranted power interruption or refusal of the defendant to supply adequate electricity to the plaintiff which act of the defendant has caused untold hardship on the Plaintiff Or (ii) in an alternative an Order directing six months free bill period for the Plaintiff as compensation for the all the period of unjustified power interruption.
And an Order directing Defendant to always notify Plaintiff of any prolonged power outage exceeding four hours on any of their entire social media platforms be it newspaper or electronic media.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Ghana’s seat of government, the Jubilee House, is boiling over seeming pressure by Nana Asante Bediatuo, Secretary to President Nana Akufo-Addo, and Board Chair of Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Freddie Blay, on President Nana Akufo-Addo to appoint Opoku Ahweneeh Danquah as the next CEO of GNPC when the current CEO, Dr K.K. Sarpong’s contract ends on 22 April 2022.
Mr Opoku Danquah, who is a Deputy CEO of GNPC in charge of Technical, is a direct cousin of Nana Asante Bediatuo, Secretary to the President.
He joined GNPC in 2020.
Sources within the presidency and GNPC told energynewsafrica.com that the Board of GNPC met last Monday, April 18, 2022, and took Opoku Danquah through the handing over processes, a move many in the government have described as a deliberate attempt to sway the judgment of the President in choosing Opoku Ahweneeh-Danquah as the most competent among the three deputy CEOs of GNPC.
Many at the seat of government are worried over the deliberate move by the duo because of claims by critics of President Nana Akufo-Addo that he is running a family and friends government.
According to energynewsafrica.com’s source, the attempt by the GNPC Board Chair and the President’s Secretary to get Opoku Ahweneeh-Danquah appointed is purely based on their intention to remote control him to get what they want.
Sources within the government said Mr Freddie Blay has had a tough time with Dr K.K Sarpong, who appears to be ‘stubborn’ when it comes to making certain demands and, therefore, wants someone he can easily control.
Although Opoku Danquah has worked with some foreign-based entities, his experience and knowledge cannot be compared to that of Benjamin Kweku Acolatse and Joseph Dadzie, who have been in management positions between 26 and 30 years in both private and public sector institutions.
For instance, Benjamin Kweku Acolatse, who is the Deputy CEO in charge of Finance and Administration and a graduate of the University of London, Ghana School of Law and Kwame University of Science and Technology, is a lawyer, Chartered Accountant & Computer & System Analyst.
He is currently pursuing PhD in Business Administration at the Noble International Business School.
He has over 26 years of executive management experience in both private and public sector institutions including oil and gas, automobile, railway infrastructure and regulations.
Before joining the GNPC in 2020, Mr Benjamin Kweku Acolatse was a Deputy CEO at the Ghana Railway Development Authority (GRDA).
Mr Joseph Dadzie, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer with responsibility for Corporate Strategy, Marketing, Gas Business, New Business & Investments, holds an MSc. Degree in General Management, an MBA in Finance and a BSc. (Hons) Degree in Chemical Engineering.
Before his current role, he was the General Manager for GNPC’s Commercial Division.
Mr Dadzie has about 30 years of wide and varied industry experience in Oil & Gas, Telecommunications, Finance and Banking.
Although Mr Opoku Ahweneeh-Danquah Jnr, the Deputy CEO of GNPC responsible for Technical Operations, is a product of The Fletcher University (Turfs University), Middle College and Presbyterian Boys’ Secondary School has worked with General Electric (GE), Houston, Texas as Director of Research, and Wood Mackenzie, as Energy & Industry Senior Analyst Houston, Texas, his expertise, according to our sources in the industry, is not up to the scratch.
President Akufo-Addo is said to be unhappy about the move by his relative.
Sources within government and GNPC indicates that the Board Chairman Mr Freddie Blay has written a Memo to management and staff of GNPC to inform them that Mr. Opoku Ahweneeh-Danquah has been appointed as acting CEO of GNPC.
According to energynewsafrica.com sources, Mr Opoku Ahweneeh-Danquah has planned to meet Management and staff of the Corporation next week.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Tanzanian government has reiterated its commitment to implement plan of generating 200MW from the geothermal by 2025.
The East African nation is in dire need to diversify its electricity mix similar to other countries in East Africa.
Energy Permanent Secretary Engr. Felchesmi Mramba said Tanzania has identified 52 areas that could produce geothermal power.
These sites are spread across the regions of Mbeya, Arusha, Dodoma, Iringa, Coast, Kilimanjaro, Kagera, Katavi, Shinyanga, Morogoro, Mwara, Manyara, Rukwa, Singida, Songwe and Tanga.
He made statement during his tour to inspect sources of geothermal energy at Kiejo-Mbaka and Ngozi in Mbeya region.
“Generally, the government intends to inject into the national grid a total of 1100MW produced from the renewable energy such as geothermal, solar and wind, before 2025,” Engr. Mramba stated.
He added that the ministry makes huge efforts in developing sources of geothermal energy because such sources of energy are sustainable.
“The inspection we have done would help the government to take proper steps in developing such sources of power,” he stated.
He said during drought water level in dams would go down, thus affecting hydropower production, but the geothermal can sustain during droughts or rains,” he argued.
TGDC is covering several geothermal sites for potential development in Tanzania, including Ngozi in Mbeya and Songwe regions, Kiejo-Mbaka in Mbeya region, Natron in Arusha region and Luhoi in the coastal region.
On his part, Acting General Manager of the Tanzania Geothermal Development Company (TGDC), a subsidiary of state-owned Tanzania Electric Supply Company (Tanesco), Engr. Mathew Mwangomba, said the Kiejo-Mbaka site can produce 60MW of power from the geothermal.
He explained that the government had disbursed about 20bn/- for development of the Kiejo-Mbaka site, and the company has already purchased drilling machine for that purpose.
Experts from the TGDC in collaboration with development partners have done all required researches.
He added that the Ngozi site is expected to produce 70 MW from the geothermal and that the TGDC is well organized to ensure that Tanzania benefit from power generated from geothermal.
Tanzania is endowed with a huge geothermal potential which has not yet been used, and has only been explored to a limited extend.
Geothermal power is a reliable, low-cost, environmental friendly, alternative energy supply and an indigenous, renewable energy source, suitable for electricity generation.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
By: Paul Sinclair
As Europe seeks new sources of gas to ensure its energy security, can African markets fill in the Russian gap? While some countries are well poised to benefit from the potential economic windfall, others are lagging in terms of investment and infrastructure, writes Paul Sinclair, Vice President responsible for Energy at Africa Oil Week.
The International Energy Agency (IEA)’s 10-point plan to reduce the European Union’s reliance on Russian natural gas makes no mention of Africa. Within the region, it sees increased production from Azerbaijan and Norway as likely to provide some additional gas in the short-term.
However, African leaders are already moving to address European and global needs. They’ll be gathering in Cape Town from October 3rd to 7th for Africa Oil Week, the leading energy conference on the continent.
Africa is the new energy frontier, offering a wide mix of energy solutions which could provide long term relief. This reality is likely to spark increased investment and exploration in coming years.
North vs. Sub-Saharan Africa
In this changing global energy landscape, North Africa is much better positioned to increase gas supplies to Europe. Major markets such as Algeria and Egypt are already significant gas exporters to Europe and can rely both on LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) cargoes and gas pipelines to do so.
Last month Algeria announced spare capacity at the Transmed pipeline that could serve to increase supplies to Europe. However, it must choose whether it is willing to jeopardize its strong relations with Russia.
Sub-Saharan Africa is lacking the gas infrastructure required to play a major role in ramping up gas exports to Europe – at least in the short-term. The sub-continent has onshore LNG export facilities in Nigeria, Angola, Equatorial Guinea and one Floating Liquified Natural Gas (FLNG) terminal in Cameroon.
Although Nigeria, Angola and Equatorial Guinea have been struggling to supply feedstock to their terminals and operate at full capacity after OPEC quotas in 2020 and years of under-investment in limited upstream gas production.
Pipelines offer an attractive solution, but not for everyone
“While pipelines across the Mediterranean have been successfully delivering gas to Europe from North Africa, it remains to be seen whether sub-Saharan African countries can replicate the same success” says Mickael Vogel, Director & Head of Research at Hawilti, the pan-African investment research firm.
“Nigeria, which holds Africa’s largest gas reserves, has long wanted to supply gas by pipelines via Morocco and Algeria. However, the time required to achieve and commission such projects, if they ever get off the ground, make them impossible contenders in the short and medium terms” he says.
LNG terminals on the rise
Increased African gas supplies to Europe are only likely to come from already-scheduled facilities and deliveries coming from projects that broke ground in recent years.
Before the end of the year, Italian company, Eni, will start production on its Floating Liquified Natural Gas (FLNG) project off the Mozambique coast. The 3.4 mtpa (million tons per annum) facility was successfully moored this month and is only Africa’s second FLNG unit after Cameroon.
TotalEnergies is hopeful to resume construction this year at the Mozambique LNG terminal, whose commissioning is not expected before 2026. However, most supply contracts secured from the terminal are with Asian traders and off-takers from India, Japan, China, and Indonesia. Consequently, very little capacity is expected to be reserved for the European market. This leaves the door open to other competitors, should they be able to deliver on time, which is unlikely.
One mega-project likely to benefit from the current scenario is Tanzania LNG – a multi-billion dollars venture that would monetize almost 50 trillion cubic feet of gas discovered offshore.
It is expected that Tanzania LNG could become a strong gas supplier to Europe before 2030, if construction could start by mid-2023.
Don’t Underestimate Floating LNG
The reshaping of Europe’s energy security leaves a lot of unanswered questions, chief amongst them is the long-term demand for gas in Europe in the first place. In this ever-changing global gas market, FLNG is the wild card – and one which sub-Saharan Africa would do well to put on the table.
By next year, the continent will have three floating LNG vessels in operations in Cameroon, Mozambique, and Senegal/Mauritania. If all goes well, a fourth one could even start operating in 2023 offshore the Republic of Congo – where Eni is now fast-tracking the development of a modular and flexible liquefaction project with technology from New Fortress Energy.
“Because floating LNG allows to develop smaller, or even stranded, gas reserves, it can be implemented across a wide range of assets with a shorter time-to-market. This makes it attractive in an environment where gas supplies need to be secured in record time,” says Mickael Vogel.
“FLNG projects are indeed a lot more flexible in how and where they deliver their cargoes. A major reason is that they can rely on shorter supply-contracts of less than 10 years, as opposed to bigger terminals who typically rely on long-term contracts of 13 to 20 years” he says.
As the current demand for “quick” gas supplies to Europe picks up, several likely African FLNG candidates could gain traction. However, for many countries the opportunity has been lost, at least for now.
Whether Africa has the potential to become a preferred gas supplier to Europe is not the only question. As I pointed out in a recent article, Africa needs to lift nearly half-a-billion (https://bit.ly/3DRyEVh) people out of poverty. In addition, nearly half of all African states have not experienced real economic growth in two decades.
This means Africa has little choice but to utilize both hydrocarbons and green energy to power its economies and drive social upliftment.
What will determine its ability to bring such reserves to market will now rely on increased stakeholders’ engagement and the development of meaningful, flexible, and rapid solutions.
Cape Town 2022 (https://bit.ly/3DNpEk0) will be a watershed moment as the economic realities of a new world order take hold.
About the Author:
Paul Sinclair is VP of Energy for Africa Oil Week. He has over 12 years’ experience in large scale energy and investment conferences. He is the former Commercial Director for Invest Africa Ltd and Global Africa Investment Summit which attracted over GBP 400 billion in managed funds from a selection of institutional investors, Family Offices, UHNWIs and traditional investors.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Samples of the bed
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
