Fortuna LNG Nears FID with New Partner Lined Up

UK-listed explorer Ophir and US oilfield services company Schlumberger have signed a heads of terms allowing the latter to receive a 40% economic interest in the Fortuna FLNG project, offshore Equatorial Guinea, Ophir said January 25.

The Africa-focused explorer said that it and Schlumberger would now work towards signing a definitive agreement, which is expected to be signed in the next quarter, ahead of a final investment decision which is on track for a first-half 2016 signing. 

Schlumberger will reimburse half of Ophir's past costs in the form of a development carried interest. This is expected to cover Ophir's share of capital expenditures up until first sales of LNG.

As previously indicated, Ophir is also presently shortlisting the gas off-take offers and expects to complete this process within the coming weeks. All work streams are progressing in line with expectations.

The head of hydrocarbons in Equatorial Guinea’s energy and mining ministry, Mercedes Eworo Milam, said the department continued “to lend full support to Ophir, GEPetrol and Sonagas as it progresses the Fortuna FLNG project towards FID."

Golar and Schlumberger agreed January 22 to jointly develop gas reserves through FLNG technology. Subject to a successful FID and implementation of the partnership in the Fortuna project, both Schlumberger and Golar have expressed interest in extending this partnership to include other existing or potential new Ophir assets in the future.

Last July, Golar LNG agreed to build, own and operate the FLNG vessel, the 2.2mn mt/year Gimi, in return for a tariff.  With this throughput, and the installation of late-in-life compression facilities, the resources discovered in Block R to date are more than sufficient to deliver a production plateau of 330mn ft³/d for over 30 years, Ophir said at the time.

William Powell