Africa could be significant LNG importer by 2025 –Total
NAN-F-19
Gas
Cape Town, Oct. 4, 2016 (Reuters/NAN) A Senior Official at Total oil and gas company said on Tuesday that Africa could become a significant global market for imported Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) by 2025.
The official said that Egypt is likely to be the main driver, as more countries eye gas-to-power projects.
“With hundreds of millions of people living without electricity in the continent, African countries are increasingly turning to gas to take advantage of lower global LNG prices amid a supply glut.
“It could be collectively a 20 to 30 million tonnes per year market by 2025,” Tom Earl, Vice President of gas and power development at the French oil major, said.
He said that Egypt could be importing between 15 million-20 million tonnes annually within a decade.
He said that actual volumes would depend on the development of its huge Zohr gas field, which had an estimated 30 trillion cubic feet of gas.
He said that West Africa was seen importing 5 million tonnes a year, Southern Africa 4 million and Morocco 2 million tonnes by 2025.
Egypt aims to import between 110 and 120 cargos of liquefied natural gas in 2017, the state-owned Egyptian Natural Gas Holding company (EGAS) said in June.
“Africa really is going to take a central role, the projects may be typically of smaller scale, but nevertheless they will collectively be very important.
“Total was focusing on gas-to-power projects around the world and wanted to develop downstream markets to increase the uptake of gas, which is seen as a cleaner alternative to harmful coal-fired plants.
“Total is willing to invest further downstream and that’s important for us because it is developing future demand, future markets,” Earl said. (Reuters/NAN)
Edited by Damilola Oyewole/Julius Enehikhuere
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