Senegal’s Petrosen Trading & Services, a subsidiary of the country’s national oil company, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Turkey’s Çalık Enerji and Japan’s Mitsubishi for the pre-feasibility study of an ammonia and urea manufacturing unit.
The agreement was signed in the presence of Senegalese President Macky Sall during the 8th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD8) held in Tunis on August 27th and 28th.
The production of fertilizers is one of the option Senegal is exploring to monetise its offshore gas reserves, currently being developed by bp and Kosmos Energy for the export market. The Greater Tortue/Ahmeyim (GTA) project that straddles the Senegal-Mauritania border will start exporting LNG next year, but has an allocation of 35 MMscf/d reserved for the domestic market. Such allocation is expected to increase once the second phase of GTA is sanctioned, leaving Senegal with plenty of gas to process domestically.
While the country’s strategy relies on switching several of its thermal power plants from diesel and HFO to natural gas, additional industries could also benefit from the processing and transformation of gas reserves.
The pre-feasibility study for a gas-based ammonia and urea plant will be financed by the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) of Japan and conducted by Mitsubishi Corporation and Nippon Koei.