Kosmos Energy is taking steps to ramp up production by 50% by 2024 – and in the longer term scale up its West African gas projects.
Kosmos CEO Andy Inglis said the company had the right plan at the right time to provide solutions to the world’s needs.
He singled out three projects, the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) Phase 1, Jubilee South East and the US’ Winterfell, as driving the 50% increase in production.
Kosmos is shifting towards gas, over oil, Inglis said.
The first instance of this is the GTA project, offshore Senegal and Mauritania, where Kosmos is working with BP. The project should reach first LNG from this first phase around the end of 2023.
“The workstreams are all making good progress,” Inglis said. The work is around 85% complete at the end of the third quarter.
The operator has drilled all four wells, with one completed. The four have capacity to produce 700 million cubic feet per day, while the first phase LNG plan requires only 400 mmcf.
© Supplied by Eiffage G?nie CivilThe floating LNG (FLNG) terminal will set sail for West Africa in the first half of next year.
The operator has installed the export pipeline, from the FPSO to the FLNG site. Work is due to start soon on the deepwater pipelines and flowlines.
A typhoon in September tore the FPSO from the quay where it was moored, in China. Kosmos said the FPSO does not appear to have been damaged and the sailaway is due at the end of the year, a delay of about a month.
Kosmos has begun talks on diverting its future LNG cargos. Inglis said there had been “significant interest” from various buyers.
New LNG options
A second phase is also under discussion. Kosmos said the partners aimed to find the “right low cost solution” in the next few months. This would use infrastructure built under the first phase.
“We’ve gone through a process of revisiting the plan for Phase 2. We’ve done that with the full engagement of all partners, with BP leading that,” Inglis said. For the governments, “it’s a question of making sure they’ve got the right project to positon them and their gas as an important trade relationship with Europe.”
The Kosmos CEO noted the visit of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Senegal earlier this year in this context. “It’s more than just engineering. It’s actually about them having to rethink their approach with everything that’s happened in the last six months.”
Inglis said he expected operator BP to put forward a new concept this month on the project.
Beyond the GTA Phase 2, Kosmos – and BP – are also interested in BirAllah and Yakaar-Teranga.
The companies signed a new licence with Mauritania on BirAllah, which gives 30 months to reach a development plan. The Kosmos head said that BirAllah had the same gas characteristics as at GTA, with no CO2 associated, making it an attractive option to export to Europe.
Meanwhile, in Senegal, Kosmos and BP are working on the first phase development of Yakaar-Teranga. The government is pushing for a primary focus on domestic demand.
After the domestic gas scheme, Inglis said, there was likely to be a follow on gas export scheme.