BP appears to be cooling on further developments offshore Mauritania and Senegal even while it builds up its portfolio supplies.
The company is building a floating LNG (FLNG) project in the West African area, at Greater Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) Phase 1.
Contractor woes has taken its toll on the project but BP expects it will start up in 2024. The company has raised the prospect of a further three developments in the area, GTA Phase 2, Bir Allah and Yakaar-Teranga.
GTA Phase 1 is around 90% completion, BP interim CEO Murray Auchincloss said on today’s conference call.
“The offshore breakwater and facilities are complete and handed over to operations”, he said.
The project involves an FPSO in the deepwater, with pipelines carrying gas to a shallower area, where the company will moor the FLNG vessel.
The FPSO is on its way to West Africa, the CEO said, while the FLNG facility should leave Singapore by the end of 2023. According to Marine Traffic, the FPSO is today offshore Maputo.
BP hopes that GTA Phase 1 will start up in the first quarter of 2024.
Auchincloss said decisions on a second phase would depend on the productivity “of the resource base and that will inform phase 2 where we have to continue through the design, optimisation and commercial negotiations with host governments and partners, so [there is] a way to go on Phase 2 production.”
The first phase will produce 2.3 million tonnes per year of LNG, with a BP subsidiary having contracted the entirety of its production.
According to a statement from February this year, the second phase would involve a gravity-based structure (GBS). It would have capacity of 2.5-3mn tpy.
Andy Inglis, head of Kosmos Energy, speaking at the BNEF conference recently said the next phase at GTA would “move a little faster” than the first, because it was building on existing infrastructure.
Delayed starts
A recent presentation from BP put the GTA Phase 2, BirAllah and Yakaar-Teranga projects as starting up after 2030.
Bloomberg reported recently that BP intended to sell down its Yakaar-Teranga stake to Kosmos, the junior partner on the projects. Kosmos declined to comment ahead of its own third quarter results, on November 6.
The Yakaar-Teranga field may hold 32 trillion cubic feet of gas. Senegal has talked of targeting this gas for local development needs. A Senegalese official, earlier this year, predicted it would reach final investment decision (FID) this year. It may then begin producing in 2026.
BP reported LNG supply of 19mn tpy in 2022. It aims to reach 25mn tpy by 2025 and 30mn tpy by 2030. The GTA Phase 1 project and Tangguh Train 3 will provide equity volumes.
Also helping reach that target will be merchant LNG supplies from Coral FLNG, Calcasieu Pass and Beach Energy’s Australian project.