Namibia Kudu Project Misses FID Target
A prospective investor in Namibian offshore gas has missed its end-2017 deadline for a final investment decision (FID). Oslo-listed shipowner BW Offshore said February 2017 it had taken a 56% interest in the Kudu licence, offshore Namibia and planned to take FID in a development during 4Q 2017 incorporating a floating production unit (FPU). The company though tells NGW it is still interested in the project.
“We are currently working towards a possible FID of the Kudu project and will inform the market about developments in our company/quarterly updates,” a BW Offshore spokesperson told NGW January 5. Any additional information on the project would be made in quarterly updates or press releases, the firm added.
BW said in February its Kudu gas-to-power project, with state Namcor as 44% partner, would – subject to FID – produce gas through BW’s FPU unit and export it by pipe to a new 885-MW power plant onshore. It said the Kudu field’s main reservoir is estimated to contain 2C resources of 1.33 trillion ft3 (37.7bn m3). Despite its size, UK independent Tullow, Japan's Itochu, Russian giant Gazprom, and previously Chevron which discovered Kudu in 1974, have all judged it uneconomic, although their plans involved a fixed platform, which would be more expensive.
BW is to host a presentation to analysts in Oslo January 8, however it has said the main focus of this will be a separate planned development of the Dussafu oil field offshore Gabon. The company’s principal activity is owning and chartering out floating production ships, including FPUs; its 3Q results presentation November 24 still showed the Kudu FID among its ‘to do’ list in 2H 2017.
Namibia meanwhile is looking to import LNG, with the International Energy Agency’s Gas 2017 report listing a 6.3bn m3/yr capacity floating import terminal (FSRU) as ‘under construction’ by Excelerate Energy jointly with South African firm Xaris Energy for a scheduled 2018 start-up.