Total Wary About Yemen LNG Forecast

Total is unwilling to estimate when its Yemen LNG joint venture will restart.

The 6.7mn mt/yr YLNG unit declared force majeure in mid-April 2015 because of civil war in the country.

Asked when it might resume production and exports, Total vice president for LNG Laurent Vivier told delegates at the CWC conference in Lisbon November 29: "I'm not going to second-guess the political situation in Yemen. The plant is still working; it's able to restart. But the conditions for the restart are not yet met."

He was asked in the context of Total's announcement that it will buy Engie's upstream LNG business, which includes contracts from Yemen, and Egypt's largely idle Idku plant. Main offtakers from Yemen LNG are Total, Engie and Korean state Kogas. Total is one of the largest YLNG shareholders too.

Vivier also said that possible Nigeria LNG train 7 project could produce and deliver to markets in the $6-$8/mn Btu price band, which was dearer than Qatar which is deliverable sub-$6/mn Btu (these not being actual sale prices).

NLNG CEO Tony Attah had said his venture, which includes Total, was working to a target of 4Q2018 for a final investment decision on its 7.1mn mt/yr Train 7 project - which has been shelved now for over a decade. Asked if he shared Attah's confidence of that FID target date as a NLNG shareholder, Total's Vivier told NGW he would not comment on a date, but that NLNG T7 "ticks all the boxes, being a brownfield project, with existing infrastructure, that also produces liquids" (LPG/condensate).