New discoveries in Namibia and investments in floating LNG have put the spotlight on Africa’s vast natural gas resources
Offshore oil and gas E&P opportunities in Africa are luring investment from international and domestic energy companies, highlighted this past year by major new discoveries in Namibia, first oil from a newly installed FPSO in Angola, and large LNG projects in Senegal and Mauritania. These investments, aimed at monetising the continent’s hydrocarbon resources, are strengthening its regional energy security.
Natural gas, and by extension, liquefied natural gas (LNG), are playing central roles in Africa’s future energy mix. In October, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production and Sunlink Energies and Resources took a positive FID on a new offshore project in the Gulf of Guinea that will supply feed gas to a seventh liquefaction train at the Nigeria LNG (NLNG), one of the world’s largest LNG export facilities.
Olu Arowolo Verheijen, special adviser on energy to Nigerian president Tinubu, provided some perspective on the importance of Shell’s US$2Bn investment in the HI gas field and that of TotalEnergies in the Ubeta gas field to meet the country’s energy export objectives and raise its standard of living.
“With the Ubeta FID and now the HI FID, we have secured the gas supply needed to make NLNG Train 7 not just possible, but transformative,” said Ms Verheijen. “These projects will significantly strengthen the reliability of Nigeria’s LNG exports to global markets, while expanding LPG supply for domestic use, reducing imports, boosting foreign exchange earnings, and advancing clean cooking access for millions of Nigerian households,” she added.
For the project, Shell will develop the HI gas field, located in 100 m of water and about 50 km from shore, initially installing a wellhead platform with capacity to drill four wells over the field and a multiphase pipeline to deliver gas and associated liquids to a processing plant at Bonny Island.
“While Mozambique has some of Africa’s largest gas resources, only 48% of its own citizens have access to electricity”
Condensates will be separated and exported through the nearby tanker loading terminal and gas will be liquefied in train 7 of the NLNG plant.
According to Shell, there are around 285M barrels of oil equivalent (boe) of recoverable resources in HI and peak production will hit about 9.9M m3 (around 60,000 boe) of gas per day.
Investment in the HI gas field is indicative of Shell’s strategy of developing known hydrocarbon resources in nations where it has significant long-term interest, like Nigeria, to extend and expand production from existing infrastructure.
