Gabon’s Transition President General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema has inaugurated Perenco’s Batanga LPG Plant last week, marking another critical milestone in the roll out of Perenco’s gas monetisation strategy in Central Africa.
Perenco is a pioneer in the monetisation of associated gas in the Gulf of Guinea where it is deploying innovative solutions to reduce flaring and process gas for the production of electricity, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) or liquefied natural gas (LNG).
In the 2000s, it commissioned a high pressure offshore pipeline network of over 400km in Gabon, including a compression station at Batanga to supply previously flared gas to the power stations of Libreville and Port Gentil. Additional compressors have been installed since to further reduce flaring, with volumes averaging 50 MMscf/d.
The commissioning of the 15,000 tonnes per year (tpy) LPG unit at Batanga represents the next step in an already successful strategy of monetising local resources in Gabon. It will help the country cut imports of cooking gas by a at least a third, and will be followed by the commissioning of the 0.7 tpy Cap Lopez LNG terminal in 2026. Perenco is also progressing the development of a 21 MW gas-to-power plant at Mayumba in the south of the country, in collaboration with the Gabon Power Company.