BP is in discussions to leave the Yakaar-Teranga natural gas field offshore Senegal as it no longer fits the UK supermajor's strategy, anonymous sources with knowledge of the talks told Bloomberg on Thursday.
BP, together with its joint venture partner Kosmos, made the Yakaar-1 discovery back in 2017, when BP said that it was a "major gas discovery."
Back then, BP believed that the Yakaar discovery, coupled with the Teranga discovery, "creates the foundation for a further LNG hub in the basin."
The potential exit of BP from Yakaar-Teranga would leave the operatorship of the offshore gas field to Kosmos, while Senegal's state-owned oil firm, Petrosen, could raise its share in the project through the renegotiation, according to one of Bloomberg's sources.
Yakaar-Teranga is tipped to be a source of natural gas for gas-to-power projects in Senegal as Africa looks to reduce energy poverty and give more people access to electricity.
Offshore Senegal and neighboring Mauritania, BP, Kosmos, Petrosen, and Société Mauritanienne des Hydrocarbures (SMH) confirmed earlier this year the development concept for the second phase of the BP-operated Greater Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) liquefied natural gas (LNG) project that they would take forward to the next stage of evaluation.
Phase 1 at Greater Tortue Ahmeyim is currently under development and is planned to export gas to an FPSO offshore where the gas will be processed and liquids separated, before exporting gas onward to floating LNG facilities 10 km offshore. It is expected to produce around 2.3 million tonnes of LNG per year when operations commence, currently expected in the first quarter of 2024.
Africa's offshore gas fields have attracted a lot of attention in recent months as majors operating in the area are looking to accelerate field development and boost LNG exports from Africa to meet Europe's gas demand now that Russian pipeline gas is no longer flowing to most EU countries.
In August, Italy's energy major Eni said it started oil and gas production from an offshore field in Cote d'Ivoire in West Africa less than two years after the discovery.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
Charles is a writer for Oilprice.com More