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Nigeria's natural gas reserves high — DPR
By Chidi Nkwopara
OWERRI—THE Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, has expressed worry that despite the significant natural gas reserves, the country was yet to fully benefit from her natural gas endowment.
The DPR Director, Mr. Mordecai B. N. Ladan, made his feelings known yesterday, while flagging off the establishment's Liquefied Petroleum Gas, LPG, sensitization workshop in Owerri.
"Nigeria has significant natural gas reserves, estimated at 192 Trillion Cubic Feet, TCF, and currently, ranks ninth in the world. Despite this abundant reserve base, its utilization in the domestic sector is grossly inadequate and the country is yet to fully benefit from her natural gas endowment", Ladan said.
It was the considered opinion of the DPR boss that LPG is essential for the reduction of deforestation, air pollution, promotion of clean energy usage, as well as to facilitate healthy population growth.
Explaining the reason for convening the workshop, Ladan said it was to through more light on the safe handling and usage of gas, especially at the plants and private homes.
While expressing great concern at the number at the number of accidents at LPG plants, Ladan however opined that majority of the accidents could be traced to non-compliance of the Standard Operating Procedures, SOP.
Welcoming the participants earlier, the Zonal Operations Controller, ZOC, Ogbuefi Morrison Nwokedi, said that in its quest to eliminate accidents at LPG plants and restore public confidence in the use of the product, developed new guidelines.
"The Department has granted approval for the construction of new LPG depots in Calabar and Port Harcourt, with storage capacities of 3,000 and 9,000 metric tonnes respectively. These depots, which are expected to be operational before the end of 2017, shall increase the LPG storage Nationwide", Nwokedi said.
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Huge gas reserves found off Senegal
19:41 28/01/2016
Dakar - Senegal on Thursday hailed the discovery of offshore gas reserves estimated at 450 billion cubic metres as a game changer for the west African nation.
US firm Kosmos said its Guembeul-1 exploration well, located in the northern part of the Saint Louis Offshore Profond licence area in Senegal, had made a "significant gas discovery."
The company said it was a "world class gas resource that extends into both Senegal and Mauritania."
"This is the best news possible for our country," said Energy Minister Thierno Alas sane Sall on state television.
He said this would allow Senegal "to be self-sufficient in energy and also export gas to the rest of the world."
Dallas-based Kosmos Energy has since 2014 had exploration rights off Senegal.
The government said it was "the biggest gas reserve in west Africa" in an offshore area shared between Senegal and Mauritania.
Kosmos said it had signed agreements with the national oil companies of Senegal and Mauritania to jointly develop the offshore field.
The company holds 60% of the rights to the field, with Timi Corporation owned by Romanian-born tycoon Frank Timi holding 30% and Senegal's Petrosen national oil company holding the remaining 10%.
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Future potential: how Mauritania and Senegal are set to become new players in natural gas supply
It's not every day that a brand new global supply of energy is unlocked. But that is what BP, in partnership with Kosmos Energy, is striving to achieve with a project to bring newly discovered natural gas resources off the coast of Mauritania and Senegal onto the world market. Following the announcement of a major offshore gas find, BP Magazine talks to regional president Emma Delaney about setting up operations
Mauritania and Senegal represent a new region for BP. What is involved in starting a business from scratch?
Most of all stamina! The key thing is to quickly understand the business context and then to establish strong relationships with partners and the governments, helping people understand who we are and how we work. It's important to have clear objectives across all the areas, from establishing in-country presence, to developing resources and delivering associated economic benefits.
You are working in partnership with Kosmos Energy. How did that come about?
Kosmos is a great explorer and in 2015 they made significant discoveries in Mauritania and Senegal - the largest of which was the Tortue field, around 15 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas in high quality reservoirs. And there's more to come; with four exploration wells drilling in 2017, we're excited about future potential.
To give you a feel for the scale of opportunity, we think there is the potential for up to 50 tcf of gas – that's equivalent to all of Africa's current gas production for nearly seven years. So it's big – big enough for 30 to 50 years of production.
For Kosmos, it was time to ask - 'Do we keep doing what we are doing, stick to our knitting as a great explorer, or do we try and branch out and do the development ourselves?' And they went down the road of, 'Let's find a really good partner to do the development', which is where BP comes in. There is a real gelling of ideas and culture between the two companies, and the timing is right for both of us, key ingredients to a successful partnership.
Our explorers and commercial teams are always on the lookout for opportunities to refresh the portfolio. The Kosmos opportunity was interesting and a great fit for our business.
Kosmos ran a 'farm-out' process, which is very typical in the industry, where they shared their data for a variety of companies to go in and understand what the basin looks like. Our explorers were excited by what they saw. Together with the development engineers and the commercial teams, we got to a place where we thought this would be a valuable opportunity for BP and put in an offer that was ultimately successful.
How are you dividing responsibilities between the two companies?
Kosmos will lead on exploration activity and BP will bring development expertise for the Tortue project and subsequent developments. Each partner brings something specific to the table. It's up to BP to understand the development concept and engineering, the subsequent execution, and ultimately the operation of the business. And, we can draw on the expertise of a global organisation, not just in the technical functions, but in the non-technical areas also. In addition, we can bring the full value chain together with our experience in LNG sales and marketing.
Kosmos are a great partner for this geography given their knowledge of Africa and established relationships in-country, which means there is continuity for all stakeholders as we embark on the appraisal and development phase. It's a highly complementary partnership, and we are working really closely together.
What are the next steps for BP?
For Exploration, the next step is to find more resources. We've just announced a major gas discovery offshore Senegal, with the Yakaar-1 exploration well drilled to a total depth of around 4,700 metres. And, there are three more exploration wells to drill in the next 12 months. For Tortue, we plan to do a drill stem test this year, which will tell us more about the productive capacity of the reservoir, informing our development strategy for the field. 2017 and 2018 are the thinking and planning years for the engineering and design of the first phase of the project before we get into physical construction activity. Plans are for a nearshore floating LNG development on the maritime border between the two countries. In parallel, we'll continue to build relationships in country, supporting both exploration and development activity. For example, in April, BP agreed to deepen its investment in Senegal by acquiring the full 30% minority participating interests that Timis Corporation holds in two offshore blocks in Saint-Louis, Profond and Cayar Profond, subject to government approval. We're planning a development that will last for half a century, one that the generation of young engineers who are starting in their careers now will have a chance to work on and see evolve.
What challenges will need to be overcome?
I think the pace is challenging because we are aiming for first gas in 2021.
As this is a new region for BP, setting up the BP brand needs to be considered in the context of the different countries. There is continuity though, with Kosmos already established with local offices and teams on the ground, and we will absolutely build on what they have achieved.
A big part of the near and medium term will be building understanding and then capacity within the oil and gas sector. We are very mindful of the long term nature of the investments we're considering today.
In addition, we need to work with key players in the government and other stakeholders in both countries, and demonstrate that developing these resources will make a positive contribution to society.
What are you most proud of?
It has been very rewarding to see the BP team come together over the last few months. We have had a very warm reception in both places, which has been fantastic. It really does make me feel very positive that by working hard we will deliver on our commitments.
What's the 10 year vision?
I think, first and foremost, it's to establish both countries as exporters and as players in the industry; I think that would be a success. We want to develop this project in a responsible manner, and have something that we can look back on ten years after start-up and see that it has brought prosperity and development, and been positive for the countries and the communities local to the developments
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
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