Angola LNG Begins 2-Month Outage

The 5.2mn metric ton/yr Angola LNG plant has entered a scheduled shutdown lasting two months.

A spokeswoman for the venture confirmed the planned shutdown to NGE on July 25, adding: “This is part of the restart and commissioning programme and is standard practice in new LNG plants. We expect that LNG production will be resumed in late September.”

Angola LNG though is not a new plant. It opened mid-2013 at a cost of $10bn but shut later for repairs to a series of technical faults. That was followed by a two-year outage from April 2014 until May 2016, before it shipped its first export cargo in over two years this June. It warned then there would be a further shutdown prior to full handover of the revamped plant by contractor Bechtel to Angola LNG, whose shareholders are state Sonangol 22.8%, lead developer Chevron 36.4%, and BP, Eni and Total each with 13.6%. The cost of repairs since mid-2013 has never been disclosed, nor where the liability for them lies.

Logo credit: Angola LNG

Chevron has had a fitful launch too of the same-sized Gorgon LNG train 1 in northwest Australia. The train shipped its first cargo in March 2016 but the train shut for repairs in April, and again earlier this month; this week however it resumed production. Construction continues of Gorgon’s trains 2 and 3. Once completed the complex’s LNG production capacity will be 15.6 mn mt/yr of LNG and it will have cost $54bn, making it the costliest LNG project ever. Chevron’s interest is 47.3%.

Mark Smedley