Mauritania’s Hopes Of Gas Riches Recede Into The Distance

15 May 2020 Issue: 63 / 20 By: James Cockayne

Not only has the 2.5mn t/y Phase-1 of the Tortue LNG project been delayed by a year, but expansion beyond this will not happen before the “back end of the decade.” Mauritania’s hopes of becoming a gas superpower won’t be achieved anytime soon.

US firm Kosmos, the key partner of BP at a string of gas discoveries off Mauritania and Senegal, says that not only will start-up of the 2.5mn t/y Phase-1 of the Tortue LNG project be delayed by a year to 1H 2023, but that the firms will not consider a final investment decision (FID) for Phases 2 and 3 until “post-2023 when we’ve got Phase 1 onstream.” Gas from the expansion would then be set to “come on in the back end of the decade,” Kosmos CEO Andy Inglis says.

Originally FID for Phases 2 and 3 (taking output to 10mn t/y) of the project situated on the two countries’ maritime border was slated for this year, with the three phases to be developed in parallel (albeit staggered) hitting 10mn t/y full capacity by 2025 (MEES, 4 January 2019). As recently as March, Kosmos said Phase-2 FID was slated for mid-2022 (MEES, 2 March). Phase-1 is currently 33% complete, Kosmos says. (CONTINUED - 933 WORDS)