By Loucoumane Coulibaly
ABIDJAN, Nov 24 (Reuters) - French oil major Total , the Ivorian state oil company and four other partners formallyestablished a consortium on Thursday to build a liquid naturalgas (LNG) import terminal meant to feed the country's growingelectricity consumption.
Demand for electricity is rising in Francophone WestAfrica's largest economy by some 10 percent a year, and theenergy minister said last year that $20 billion of investment isneeded in the industry over the next 15 years.
According to Thursday's agreement, the new company, calledCote d'Ivoire-GNL, is 34 percent owned by Total while the StateOil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) controls 26percent and Ivorian state oil company Petroci 16 percent.
Royal Dutch Shell, Houston-based Endeavor Energy and Golar LNG also hold minority stakes.
"Many electricity-producing projects are awaiting a gassupply to really kick off," Ibrahima Diaby, the director generalof Petroci said at the signing ceremony.
The project aims to conceive, build and operate a floatingstorage regasification unit (FSRU) with initial capacity of 100million cubic feet that would gradually be brought up to 400million cubic feet, Diaby said.
The cost of the project, expected to take about 18 months tocomplete, has also been reduced to $100 million from an earlierestimate of $200 million, he added.
Ivory Coast has the region's most reliable power productionsector and exports electricity to its neighbours. Petroci saidin July that it hopes to double oil and gas output by 2020 bydeveloping offshore reserves in the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea.
(Writing By Aaron Ross)
