Mauritania’s Gas Ambitions: Will They Be Thrown Off Course By Bearish LNG Outlook?

28 Feb 2020 Issue: 63 / 9 By: James Cockayne

US independent Kosmos now says it will retain, not sell, the bulk of its stake in the key Tortue LNG project. It says this is driven by a desire for a more gas-focused portfolio; but a lack of attractive bids likely underlies the decision. Kosmos still hopes to sell down Mauritania’s potentially larger Bir Allah hub. But development here is for the long term; and the energy transition means ‘long term’ risks becoming never.

US upstream independent Kosmos is operator BP’s key partner at a slew of giant gas discoveries off Mauritania and Senegal. The firms ultimately plan three 10mn t/y LNG hubs based on 100tcf reserves. BP operates all of the relevant blocks with stakes of around 60%. Former operator Kosmos has stakes of 27-30%, stakes which it planned to reduce to 10% in a sale launched a year ago.

But, speaking on his firm’s 2019 results call on 24 February, Kosmos CEO Andy Inglis made an about turn. The firm now says it is minded to keep its 27% stake in Tortue, on the Mauritania/Senegal border, by far the most advanced of the three developments after end-2018 Phase-1 FID. “We’ve decided to retain a greater interest in the Tortue project,” Mr Inglis says, adding that Kosmos is now “focusing on monetizing either a smaller portion of Tortue or a larger portion of the remainder of Mauritania-Senegal portfolio to fund the increased interest in Tortue.” (CONTINUED - 2114 WORDS)