A final investment decision (FID) for the Tortue development offshore Mauritania and Senegal, which includes a floating LNG production unit, is still expected by the end of this year, according to project partner Kosmos Energy.
“FID of the first 2.5 million ton phase is expected around the end of the year,” Chief Executive of Kosmos, Andy Inglis said on Monday during a conference call discussing the company’s first-quarter results.
West Africa’s Tortue discovery was made by Kosmos, which farmed down its investment to BP in December 2016. BP now has 60 percent stake in the project, the largest interest among the four partners in the project and is the operator.
In April this year, TechnipFMC secured a contract by BP for the development of the FPSO front-end engineering design (FEED) for the LNG project while Golar LNG signed a preliminary deal to provide a FLNG unit for the project.
Discussing the project’s progress during the conference call, Inglis said that the project partners have issued requests for proposals for the gas offtake to a shortlisted group of potential buyers including all major traders and end users.
In parallel with the first phase, the partnership is also evaluating concepts for additional phases to expand the capacity of Tortue.
The project could be expanded from around 2.5 million tonnes to 10 million tonnes per year by the “middle part of the decade or sooner,” according to Inglish.
“This work is ongoing and aimed at providing the most efficient liquefaction options which can leverage existing infrastructure of the near-shore development and provide economies of scale,” he said.
“We’re aiming to grow the gas delivered from Tortue in the early 2020s, when leading forecasters expect LNG demand to outpace supply given the low inventory of world scale greenfield projects ready for sanction,” Inglish said.
He added that this “should be a good time to bring gas to market allowing us to deliver attractive project economics for the partnership.”
LNG World News Staff