Eni Updates Ghana on Onshore Gas, Visits Angola
Construction work for Ghana’s Sanzule onshore gas process unit and related pipeline network -- part of the Eni-led Offshore Cape Three Points (OCTP) offshore oil and gas project -- is 63% complete, Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi told Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo November 3 in Accra.
Associated gas production from the OCTP floating production ship, FPSO John Agyekum Kufuor, will flow to the onshore gas process plant via a 63 km-long, 180mn ft3/d pipeline. Gas production should start in 2018; OCTP oil production began May 2017. Ghana’s government expects OCTP gas to help tackle the power crisis that the country has experienced for some years.
Gas processed at Sanzule will be supplied, via state-owned Ghana Gas Company’s network, to undisclosed power plants, some currently idle. They are expected to increase Ghana’s actual power by 900 MW, rising to an increase of 1500 MW once OCTP gas peaks. Ghana will benefit from the project for 15 years, which should “really stimulate growth” according to President Akufo-Addo.
OCTP was initially expected to produce only 2.8mn b during 2017, but Eni told the president that it should now reach 5.2mn b (22,320 b/d), reaching a plateau of 45,000 b/d by end-2017.
Descalzi met with Angola's new president Joao Lourenço November 6. Eni’s equity production in the country is 155,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, largely oil, but including some output from the 5.2mn metric ton/yr Angola LNG plant. Its statement said it “is developing initiatives to monetise gas resources already discovered in Angola in order to support the domestic market and power production, and is collaborating with Sonangol in the downstream sector to improve the efficiency of the existing refineries and to support development of future plants”.
Eni in February 2017 began producing oil from block 15/06 offshore Angola, five months ahead of schedule. But the company declined to comment, when asked last week by NGW for an update on its gas plans in the country, including on block 15/06 where pre-2014 it was considering floating LNG.
Olivier de Souza