Anadarko is negotiating with potential buyers for its massive planned gas project offshore Mozambique, Italy's Eni is considering the sale of another 10% stake in a major gas block, and South African petrochemicals giant Sasol is keeping a close eye on gas prospecting in this emerging powerhouse.
Addressing a conference in Tokyo on Tuesday, Anadarko CEO Al Walker said the company would likely be announcing agreements for the sale of gas from its planned Mozambique project late this year and early next.
Anadarko is currently talking to 20 different buyers about supplies, and plans to ship its first LNG from Mozambique in 2018. By the end of this year, the company will have invested some $3 billion in developing its discoveries offshore Mozambique, and so far 90% of the offshore work and 60% of the onshore work has been completed.
Buyers are lining up, and we're talking about as much as 65 trillion cubic feet of estimated recoverable reserves in the block (Area 1).
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Anadarko will have four liquefaction plants or trains to start with, and is eyeing the construction of up to 6 more. In total, Anadarko is planning a 50 million ton/per year LNG capacity from Mozambique.
Anadarko is partnered with Italy's Eni to develop Area 1 in Mozambique.
Last week, Eni announced another gas discovery in the Rovuma basin in its majority-owned of Area 4. This adds to its earlier estimate that its Mozambique fields contain around 80 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Preliminary estimates indicated that the new find in the Agulha structure could contain 5 to 7 trillion cubic feet of gas.
This week, Eni said it might sell another 10% stake in this exploration frontier. Earlier this year, the Italian company sold a 20% stake to China's CNPC for $4.2 billion.
Paolo Scaroni, chief executive, said ENI had no immediate plans to sell down its 50 per cent stake in Area 4. But he added that "if some buyer of gas shows interest  . . . we're ready to sell another 10 per cent".
Mr Scaroni said the Agulha discovery was exciting because it "is a completely new play.
"While it's not that exciting to find more gas in Mozambique, because so much has been discovered already, it really is exciting to find a new play, in which we can see the potential for wet gas. This might lead to more gas, more condensate and more oil."
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At the same time, CEO David Constable of South African petrochemical giant Sasol has hinted that the company is conferring with others on how to transform the natural gas fields in the Rovuma basin into revenues.
"I think we will be a part of it in an as yet unspecified way, but very likely in gas processing," media quoted Constable as saying, adding that the group was following the process closely, especially as the gas deposits were far out at sea and their exploration was expensive.
About 150 trillion cubic feet of gas has been found offshore Mozambique.
By. Charles Kennedy of Oilprice.com
Charles is a writer for Oilprice.com More