Golar LNG Ltd.’s floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) vessel Gimi has reached its commercial operations date (COD), triggering a 20-year lease for the BP PLC-operated Greater Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) project on the Mauritania-Senegal maritime border.
The project had already started LNG production February and dispatched its first cargo April, introducing Mauritania and Senegal as LNG exporters. Meanwhile the field, which BP says is one of the deepest offshore developments in Africa with water depths of up to 2,850 meters (9,350.39 feet), went onstream January.
“LNG production volumes have successfully been ramped up to a level equivalent to the annual contracted volumes of approximately 2.4 million tonnes per annum, or around 90 percent of nameplate capacity of 2.7mtpa”, co-venturer Kosmos Energy said in a press release Monday.
GTA exported its second and third cargo in May and June, while a fourth is loading. “The fifth cargo is expected at the start of the third quarter”, Dallas, Texas-based Kosmos Energy added.
“With this expected cargo timing, Kosmos forecasts 3.5 gross cargos in the second quarter”.
GTA had been targeted to start production 2022 according to BP’s announcement of the FID (final investment decision) December 2018. However the project faced delays.
Kosmos said in its fourth quarter 2023 financial report the subsea contractor had been replaced.
BP holds a 56 percent stake in GTA. Kosmos Energy owns 27 percent, Senegal’s national oil and gas company Petrosen has 10 percent and Mauritanian counterpart SMH holds the remaining seven percent.
The FLNG vessel is owned and operated by Bermuda-based Golar. Gimi was built 1976 and converted 2023 with an output capacity of 2.45 million metric tons per annum.
A floating production, storage and offloading vessel about 40 kilometers (24.85 miles) offshore removes water, condensate and impurities from the gas before sending it via pipeline to the FLNG, situated 10 kilometers offshore.
Golar said separately on Monday, “Following the achieved COD of FLNG Gimi and announcement of the two FLNG charters in Argentina on May 2, 2025, Golar is accelerating work on its next FLNG unit(s)”.
Last month Golar and its partners in the Southern Energy project reached a positive FID (final investment decision) and fulfilled the conditions for the 20-year redeployment of FLNG Hilli, the first of two vessels for the Argentine natural gas export project.
Hilli, fully acquired by Golar last year, will be chartered to the project consortium, Southern Energy SA (SESA), under a contract that is expected to start up 2027. Hilli began operation 2018 and has been deployed in Cameroon for Perenco SA under a contract that expires July 2026.
Concurrently the Southern Energy partners signed definitive agreements for the 20-year charter of an MKII-design FLNG vessel, which is being converted in China. They expect to make an FID this year and deploy the unit in 2028.
“We continue to advance commercial discussions, with charterer demand guiding design choice of the fourth FLNG unit”, Golar said Monday. “In addition to the 3.5mtpa MKII option at CIMC Raffles shipyard, Golar has signed a final engineering study to confirm EPC price and delivery for a 5mtpa MKIII FLNG and is updating price and schedule for an up to 2.7mtpa MKI FLNG”.
To contact the author, email jov.onsat@rigzone.com
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