Start-Up at BP’s West African LNG Export Project Slips Again to Q4

First LNG at BP’s delayed Greater Tortue Ahmeyim export project offshore Mauritania and Senegal is now expected for the fourth quarter of 2024, project partner Kosmos said on Monday in an update confirming further slipping of the start-up date.

BP and Kosmos are developing the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim Phase 1 project, which will use a floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) vessel to produce LNG from the massive natural gas find offshore Mauritania and Senegal in West Africa made in 2015.   

The Greater Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) Phase 1 is set to produce around 2.3 million tonnes of LNG per year and the project is expected to produce LNG for more than 20 years, enabling Mauritania and Senegal to become a global LNG hub, BP says.

However, the project has been plagued by delays and setbacks and is now roughly a year behind its original schedule.

GTA was expected to come on stream last year.

In November 2023, however, Kosmos said that the start-up could slip into the second quarter of 2024.

The FLNG vessel, Gimi, arrived at its destination earlier this month, BP said, without giving a timeline for start-up.

But the UK supermajor noted that the GTA Phase 1 project will produce gas from deep water reservoirs through a subsea system to a floating production and storage offloading (FPSO) vessel, which will initially process the gas, removing heavier hydrocarbon components.  

In its 2023 earnings release today, Kosmos said that the FPSO vessel is currently in a shipyard in Tenerife for inspection and repair of the fairleads.

Completion of this work and transit to the project site is expected early in the second quarter ahead of final hookup and commissioning, according to BP’s project partner.

“The critical path to first gas, expected in the third quarter of 2024, continues to be through the arrival, hookup and commissioning of the FPSO. Timely execution of this workstream is expected to allow for first LNG in the fourth quarter,” Kosmos said.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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