Bloomberg: Shell Shut Out as Africa’s Gas Trove Lures Asian States

Asian state-owned oil companies are making inroads in the contest for East Africa’s energy reserves, gaining power in export projects that Western explorers like Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) used to dominate.

Fields off Mozambique’s Indian Ocean coast are estimated to hold enough gas to meet global demand for two years, a prize that persuaded state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. to make its biggest foreign investment. The Beijing-based company agreed to pay Italy’s Eni SpA (ENI) $4.2 billion last month for a share in the fields and a planned liquefied natural gas plant. While it’s the first time Asia’s state producers have participated in an African LNG project, companies from China, India, South Korea and Thailand now hold 24 percent.

State producers “have a national interest initiative to secure significant gas reserves and they can’t ignore a reserve of this size,” said Brett Olsher, the global co-head of natural resources at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. “Unlike in a number of LNG projects, in Mozambique there isn’t one dominant supermajor, which provides an opportunity for national oil companies.” MORE