AMEC, Afgas plan Equatorial Guinea gas systems

AMEC PLC and African Gas Development Corp. (Afgas) will design, procure, build, and operate natural gas infrastructure for a new joint venture of Afgas and Equatorial Guinea state-owned gas company Sonagas.

Jan. 23, 2007

2 min read

Uchenna Izundub
International Editor

LONDON, Jan. 23 -- AMEC PLC and African Gas Development Corp. (Afgas) will design, procure, build, and operate natural gas infrastructure for a new joint venture of Afgas and Equatorial Guinea state-owned gas company Sonagas.

The companies will market gas supplies in Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, and Cameroon to underpin Equatorial Guinea LNG Co. Ltd.'s (EG LNG's) 3.4 million-tonnes/year liquefaction complex on Bioko Island in Equatorial Guinea (OGJ, Sept. 4, 2006, Newsletter). Sonagas holds a one-fourth interest in EG LNG, which will export its first LNG cargo to the US this summer.

Nigeria and Cameroon plan to provide additional gas for a proposed second 4.4 million-tonne/year train at the plant, which operator Marathon Oil is evaluating. Bechtel Corp. is scheduled to complete by the end of March the front-end engineering design work for the second train.

Afgas will provide all required subsea pipelines and related infrastructure in partnership with AMEC and, separately, UK engineering-construction firm Acergy.

"The Gulf of Guinea has gas reserves of approximately 200 tcf, with more than 80% of those reserves being situated in Nigeria," said Afgas Chief Executive Ethelbert Cooper. "Therefore Equatorial Guinea is ideally placed to be one of the leading regional gas processing centers for West Africa." Cooper said the joint venture would enable the companies to fast-track projects and better respond to competition for LNG access from the Gulf of Guinea."

Contact Uchenna Izundu at [email protected].