Offshore staff
LONDON – Ophir Holdings & Ventures, a subsidiary of Ophir Energy, and OneLNGSM, a joint venture between subsidiaries of Golar LNG and Schlumberger, will form a joint operating company (JOC) to develop the Fortuna gas project in block R offshore Equatorial Guinea using Golar’s FLNG technology.
OneLNG and Ophir will have respective ownership of 66.2% and 33.8% in the JOC, which will facilitate financing, construction, development, and operation of the Fortuna project and, which will also own Ophir’s share of the block R license and the GandriaFLNG vessel following a final investment decision (FID).
Final terms remain subject to execution of documentation for project debt financing, and approval by the shareholders of Ophir Energy and by the government of Equatorial Guinea.
Ophir anticipates the FID will go forward during the first half of next year, with first gas following in 1H 2020. Initial offtake will likely be 2.2-2.5 MMt/yr for between 15 and 20 years, monetizing around 2.6 tcf of the discovered resource.
Estimated capex for the integrated project is around $2 billion to reach first gas, of which around $1.2 billion will likely be debt financed. Prior to FID, the JOC will take a decision on the final offtake pricing mechanism.
Nick Cooper, CEO of Ophir, said: “Ophir’s committed future expenditure to first gas will not exceed $150 million and certain other commercial exposures have been limited. We will now be able to advance the project while preserving our balance sheet strength.”
Jeff Goodrich, CEO of OneLNG, added: “OneLNG was formed to provide an integrated approach to operators to reduce risk and costs and accelerate the time to monetize stranded gas reserves, and thereby transforming the economic viability of such projects…We look forward to working with Ophir and all of the other stakeholders to deliver OneLNG’s and Africa’s first deepwater FLNG project.”
11/10/2016
