17 April 2013 – BG plans to forward an LNG development solution to the Tanzanian government within the next two months as it nears completion of a second drill stem test off the east African country.
BG Tanzania president Derek Hudson told an afternoon audience Tuesday at the LNG 17 conference in Houston that the company would make its proposal “in a month or two”.
He did not identify the preferred solution, saying all development schemes including subsea-to-beach, floating production and an FLNG option were “still considered”.
A land-based LNG train is expected to be the most appealing scheme.
The discoveries made to-date are scattered across four large blocks and in water depths stretching beyond 1000 metres from shore.
Six land sites for an LNG plant have been identified. Hudson hinted that the Tanzanian government would weigh in on a favoured option as well.
“We are quite open to the best way to develop,” Hudson said, adding that the next two months of appraisal drilling would be “critical”.
Hudson also said BG would announce results “soon” from the second DST, which follows a successful test of the Jodari-1 discovery in Block 1.
A third DST may also be conducted in Block 4 where the Chewa and Pweza fields are located.
BG has spend about $1 billion on exploration and appraisal drilling offshore Tanzania since becoming operator of Blocks 1, 3 and 4 in July 2011.
BG said last month it had successfully completed a DST of the Jodari-1 well on Block 1, confirming the “excellent” quality of the Tertiary reservoir and flowing at a constrained maximum rate of 70 million cubic feet of gas per day during testing.
Hudson said the discovered reservoirs are not too complex geologically: highly permeable sandstones, normally pressured and low temperature yielding multi-trillion cubic feet of dry gas with little or no contaminants.
BG also has its eyes on Kenya and Madagascar. Hudson said exploration drilling could begin off Madagascar’s shores in 2014 or 2015.
BG Group as operator has a 60% interest in Blocks 1, 3 and 4 offshore Tanzania, with Ophir Energy holding 40%.
*Anthony Guegel, Upstreamonline
