[Premium] Sasol Lifts Lid on Mozambique Ambitions - Clarification
Clarification: The original article, published August 22, said in the opening line that South African oil, gas and synfuels group Sasol is exploring scenarios for a northern expansion of its operations in Mozambique. To clarify, Sasol's existing base is in southern Mozambique. An amended version follows.
South African oil, gas and synfuels group Sasol said August 21 it is exploring scenarios for an expansion northward of its current operations in southern Mozambique.
Joint CEO Stephen Cornell told NGW that there is little appetite to expand its operations in the south of the country as far north as the massive offshore Rovuma gas fields near the Tanzanian border. But he did say that Sasol is looking at the possibility of a shorter expansion from its current operations.
Some 160 trillion ft³ offshore Mozambique plus 39 trillion ft³ offshore Tanzania of gross recoverable gas has been found in the Rovuma basin by big-ticket explorers including Eni, Anadarko, Shell and Statoil, with ExxonMobil amongst the list of partners there.
“We are looking whether we can go incrementally north, in the southern portion of Mozambique,” explained Cornell: “We are evaluating. You have to do seismic evaluation, field development. We are looking at what the options are. Our main focus is developing the licence we already have. We are looking five to ten years ahead. We are looking at likely places to evaluate: both onshore and offshore.”
Sasol is expanding production of its Pande and Temane fields in Mozambique, with development drilling of 13 wells. “The production sharing agreement is on track,” Cornell’s co-CEO Bongane Nqwababa told a media briefing, adding that so far four oil and two gas wells have been drilled, with capex to date of $384mn.
Gas reserves are in line with expectations “but oil production is expected in mid to lower end of the range.” Downward expectation of oil output has led to Sasol “optimising the design of the surface facilities,” Nqwababa added.
SADC to Set up Gas Committee
In another development, South Africa's president Jacob Zuma announced August 20, after a weekend summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), that the inter-governmental body would set up the SADC regional natural gas committee.
“The discovery and exploitation of natural gas within our region should constitute the backbone of our regional economic integration,” he said: “As such, the summit directed the [Botswana-based SADC] secretariat to facilitate the establishment of a regional natural gas committee to promote the inclusion of gas in the regional energy mix and in the promotion of industrial development.”
Cornell welcomed the announcement: “We have said repeatedly that we see natural gas as the bridge to a low carbon economy. Renewables will come, but are not close to being ready to carry a significant proportion of demand for the region. Gas is one of the cornerstones of our strategy.”
SADC comprises 15 member states: Angola, Botswana, Congo (Kinshasa), Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
John Fraser