Country: Republic of Congo

The African Petroleum Producers Organisation (APPO) held the 5th Meeting of the CEOs of national oil companies (NOCs) today in Brazzaville. The presidence of the Meeting was handed over from Algeria’s Sonatrach to SNPC with a mandate of growing collaboration and partnerships between African state-owned energy companies. With the attendance of CEOs and representatives from the NOCs of Algeria, Angola, Benin, Gabon, Republic of Congo, D.R. Congo, Libya, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Niger, and Côte d’Ivoire, the Meeting focused on addressing Africa’s main energy challenges. Access to capital and the need to develop sustainable operational practices featured high on the agenda. The Meeting notably welcomed an intervention of Dr. Sultan Al-Jaber, CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and President of COP 28. With the UN Climate Change Conference only two weeks away, African NOCs discussed a common position on climate change and Africa’s approach to the energy transition. They notably considered signing into the Global Decarbonization Accelerator (GDA), an initiative to be launched in COP 28 and for which nearly 20 NOCs/IOCs have joined already across the world. The day ended with a recommendation to consider signing the Global Charter on Decarbonisation and pushed African NOCs to ensure that Africa has a voice in the global discourse on energy transition, and agenda setting. The establishment of the African Energy Bank, a joint project of APPO and the Afreximbank, was also part of the agenda. Participants were briefed on all potential avenues to raise the $5bn required for the bank, including the need to raise capital from sovereign wealth funds and African institutional investors. More importantly, the Meeting urged NOCs to consider subscribing to the share capital of the bank to fast-track its establishment. Last but not least, several cooperation frameworks and agreements were sealed, especially when it comes to training and skills development. SONATRACH of Algeria entered into collaboration agreements on training with SNPC, GNPC (Ghana), SONAHYDROC (D.R. Congo), and SNG-Benin. On its side, SNPC and SONIDEP of Niger also entered into a cooperation agreement on the sharing of experience and expertise as well as capacity building. In order to grow cooperation between African NOCs, participants decided to establish the NOC Technical Experts Committee, while GEPetrol agreed to host the next NOCs Meeting in Malabo in September 2024.

This article first appeared on the Hawilti+ terminal on 10 August 2023. Saipem has been awarded a contract by Eni Congo to convert its Scarabeo 5 semisubmersible drilling unit into a separation and boosting plant. The converted rig will serve a floating production unit (FPU) for Congo LNG, Eni’s LNG export project currently under-development offshore Pointe Noire. Saipem is already a contractor on the project, for which it is executing preliminary engineering and procurement activities. The FPU will be receiving the production fluids from wellheads riser platforms, separate the gas from liquids and boosts the gas to feed the nearby 2.4 mtpa floating LNG unit (FLNG) currently being built by Wison Heavy Industry in China. While start-up is expected in Q4 2025, Eni Congo is expected to start delivering LNG as early as the end of the year from an initial development that relies on a small 0.6 mtpa FLNG unit.

Congo’s national oil company SNPC organized a gala dinner to celebrate its 25th anniversary and launch its ambitious “Performance 2025” program. The event took place at the Grand Hotel of Kintélé in early May and brought together more than 1,000 people, including SNPC agents, partners, friends and members of the government and Congolese institutions. The highlight of the evening was the launch of the “Performance 2025” program of the SNPC. Presented by the Director General of the company, Mr. Maixent Raoul Ominga, this project is based on four pillars: increasing income, controlling and optimizing costs, supporting and contributing to the government agenda, and ensuring better governance of the company’s activities. More generally, Performance 2025 aims at positioning the SNPC as a undisputed leader of the Congolese and African oil industry in the years to come. The Director General clarified that the project seeks to improve the competitiveness of SNPC, emphasizing productivity, quality and operational efficiency. A highlight of the evening was the delivery of the SNPC book to the Director General by a tribe who presented a choreography and traditional songs. The SNPC book presents the history of hydrocarbons in the Republic of Congo since 1957 and that of the company 25 years ago. It was presented by the Director General to Mr. Bruno Jean Richard Itoua, Minister of Hydrocarbons. “For the SNPC, this historic moment is an opportunity to take a retrospective look on the road traveled and to have a prospective look at its future,” Maixent Raoul Ominga said during his speech. “It is by associating all the intelligences, energies, know-how and by getting out of our comfort zones that our company will certainly be at the rendez-vous of its ambitions, through its ‘Performance 2025’ program.”

Expro has announced this week the signing of a 10-year Production Solutions contract with Eni Congo for an 80 MMscf/d LNG pre-treatment facility in Congo-Brazzaville. Under the agreement, Expro will design, construct, operate and maintain a fast-track the facility as part of Eni Congo’s Marine XII gas development plans that include the deployment of two floating LNG units in 2023 and 2025. Expro’s facility will be built near the Litchendjili gas plant to enable LNG production, under a 10-year contract that should generate some $300m for Expro. “The facility will link to Eni Congo’s offshore floating LNG (FLNG) operations, supporting both the local energy market and increased global demands for LNG to support secure energy supplies,” Expro said in a statement.

Wison Offshore & Marine held yesterday its 1st Cutting Ceremony for a new floating LNG unit it is constructing for Eni in the Republic of Congo. The ceremony took place at the Nantong yard, where Wison (Nantong) Heavy Industry Co., Ltd. will be constructing the 2.4 mtpa unit. The project is expected to be commissioned in 2025 on Eni’s shallow water Marine XII Block offshore Congo-Brazzaville. It is part of Eni’s phased gas valorisation plan to develop and monetise the gas reserves on the license. Phase 1 relies on the 0.6 mtpa Tango FLNG which Eni acquired from Exmar in 2022 and where first production is expected in H2 2023 to monetise available gas from the Litchendjili et Néné-Banga fields. Once both projects are commissioned, the block will have an LNG export capacity of 3 mtpa, or 4.5 Bcm/year.

On the occasion of the National Tree Planting Day in the Republic of the Congo, TotalEnergies has launched the “Batéké Carbon Sink” afforestation operations. This large-scale project, conducted in partnership with Forêt Ressources Management, consists of 40,000 hectares of planted forest on the Batéké Plateaux. Some 40 million trees will be planted in total over 10 years and cared for over 35 years. During the past eight months, local tree nurseries have already produced more than one million plants, which will be progressively planted from the next rainy season on the 800 hectares of land that have been prepared since last summer, the company said in a statement this morning. The 40,000 hectares planted will create a carbon sink that will sequester an average of 500,000 tons of CO2 per year over twenty years, equivalent to the annual CO2 emissions of an average European city of 70,000 inhabitants. The carbon credits will be certified in accordance with the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS).