Name and Location
Banda gas-to-power project, Mauritania.

Client
The project is owned by a consortium of investors, with Tullow Oil as the majority shareholder and operator in the joint venture (JV). The other JV partners are Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas), Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (Kufpec) and Premier Oil. Mauritanian State-owned oil company SMH will be entitled to participate in the JV.

Project Description
The Banda project aims to develop natural gas resources from the Banda gasfield, which will serve as the primary fuel source for power generation that will supply Mauritania’s domestic and industrial sectors, as well as export power to Senegal and Mali.

The gasfield is located about 55 km off the Mauritanian coastline at water depths of between 200 m and 325 m. Studies indicate that the gasfield has the capacity to sustain production rates ranging between 40-million and 60-million standard cubic feet a day, over 20 years.

The key components of the project include:
• the offshore drilling and completion of two production wells;
• the installation of an estimated 75-km-long, 254 mm subsea pipeline and an estimated 6-km-long, 254 mm onshore pipeline and accessories; and
• a gas processing plant.

The wells will be drilled from a single drill centre, using a moored semisubmersible mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU). During drilling, about two supply vessels a week will be used to transfer materials – mud, casings, tools and water – from the onshore supply base to the MODU for the duration of drilling. A 500 m temporary safety exclusion zone will be established around the MODU. Once drilling is complete, the MODU will be removed, and there will be no permanent surface infrastructure associated with the operation. An existing onshore support base, located at the Port of Nouakchott, will be used under a lease agreement.

Subsea trees will be installed at seabed, and produced gas will be exported to shore through the subsea pipeline and the onshore pipeline. An umbilical will be laid alongside the pipeline to supply power and communications, as well as necessary chemicals to the subsea wells. The subsea pipeline and umbilical will be trenched or, where trenching is not possible, protected by rock dump and/or flexible concrete mattresses. The gas processing plant will be located onshore about 9 km north of Nouakchott, within a 1 km by 1 km plot, which will also accommodate the downstream power plants.

A 6 km onshore pipeline and umbilical will connect the subsea pipeline and umbilical to the gas processing plant.

The onshore pipeline and umbilical will be trenched along their entire length to prevent accidental damage. The plant will be designed to condition 65-million standard cubic feet a day of gas to fuel the adjacent power plant to be developed, owned and operated by a third party – Société de Production d’Electricité à partir du Gaz (SPEG).

Stabilised condensate will be transported by road tanker to the storage facilities at Nouakchott port for onwards export for out-of-country refining.

The first phase of power generation includes the construction of two power plants at the same site – a 120 MW combined-cycle power plant and a 180 MW dual-fuel thermal gas-fired power plant. Phase 1 also includes, as part of the national grid, a high-voltage transmission line to be constructed from the power plant to the north to serve the communities of Nouadhibou and Zouérat and the Tasiast mine. Power will also be exported to Mali and Senegal.

Value
The gross capital cost of the project is estimated at $650-million.

Duration
First gas is targeted for the second quarter of 2016. Construction of the gas plant is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2014 and last for about 18 months. The SPEG dual-fuel power plant is scheduled for commissioning in March 2015.

Latest Developments
None stated.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Tullow Oil head of media relations George Cazenove, tel +44 203 249 9997.
Petronas, tel +60 3 2051 5000 or fax +60 3 2026 5050.
Kufpec, tel +965 1836000, fax +965 24951818 or email KUFPEC@KUFPEC.com
Premier Oil, tel +44 20 7730 1111, fax +44 20 7730 4696 or email premier@premier-oil.com.