ENH in talks with Anadarko to “accelerate the gas supply process for Shell”

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

ENH in talks with Anadarko to “accelerate the gas supply process for Shell”

12:39 CAT | 03 Dec 2018

File photo: A Verdade

Confronted with the fact that Anadarko will only be able to provide domestic gas for the Shell GTL project in 2030, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Hydrocarbons Company (ENH) explained that it is “talking with the operator to see if we can accelerate the gas supply process for Shell”.

The vice president of Anadarko Petroleum Corporation in Mozambique, Steve Wilson, stated that the availability of additional natural gas for the Mozambican market would happen only “five years after the Final Investment Decision and after two years of sustainable production: only at that point can we then certify additional reserves and then negotiate the sale of gas to other projects such as Shell’s GTL”.

Speaking on the same panel of the Financial Times Conference held in Maputo on 8 October, the director of the Afungi GTL project, Moon Hussain, replied that the multinational company that is leading the consortium exploiting natural gas in the Rovuma Basin is keeping the diversification projects of the natural gas industry in Mozambique “held hostage by its creditors”.

“If we do not get gas for our fuels by 2021 or before the benefits we would have would be pushed back to 2030,” Moon Hussain concluded.

A Verdade asked Omar Mitha, the Chairman of the Board of Administration of the commercial arm of the Mozambican government in the Petroleum sector, how will this situation be resolved considering that Mozambican law mandates that 5 percent of the resources produced have to be allocated to the domestic market.

“The Area 1 Development Plan was approved by the Council of Ministers and there is a clear mandate for ENH to discuss with the operator to see if we can accelerate the gas supply process for Shell, which is Phase 2. This is happening in an adequate forum where we have Shell, ENH, and also a consultant,” he said.

However Mithá acknowledged that: “if you do not have an export project, which is the anchor project, you will not have the domestic gas project, so there is a sense of prioritisation here.”

Shell Mozambique BV won a public government tender to implement a processing project in Cabo Delgado to transform the natural gas that Anadarko will produce into liquid fuels such as gas oil, naphtha and kerosene, but to do that it needs 310 to 330 million cubic feet of hydrocarbons a day.

During the first phase of its project, Anadarko has proposed allocating only 100 million cubic feet of natural gas to the Mozambican market.

Source: A Verdade