* Demand for electricity rising in Ivory Coast
* Total to have 34 pct of new Cote d'Ivoire-GNL company (Adds update with Total's statement, details)
By Loucoumane Coulibaly
ABIDJAN, Nov 25 (Reuters) - French oil major Total , the Ivorian state oil company and four other partners haveformally established a consortium to build a liquid natural gas(LNG) import terminal meant to feed the country's growingelectricity consumption.
Demand for electricity is rising in Ivory Coast - which isFrancophone West Africa's largest economy - by some 10 percent ayear, and the energy minister said last year that $20 billion ofinvestment is needed in the industry over the next 15 years.
According to the agreement - first announced on Nov. 24 -the new Cote d'Ivoire-GNL company is 34 percent owned by Totalwhile the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic(SOCAR) controls 26 percent and Ivorian state oilcompany Petroci has 11 percent.
Royal Dutch Shell will hold a 13 percent stake,while Houston-based Endeavor Energy and Golar LNG will have minority stakes.
"This project illustrates Total's strategy to develop newgas markets by unlocking access to LNG for fast-growingeconomies," said Philippe Sauquet, head of Total's Gas,Renewables and Power division in a statement on Friday.
Total added that the terminal is expected to becomeoperational by mid 2018, and that it will use the terminal tosupply LNG volumes from its global portfolio.
The company hopes the Ivory Coast LNG hub will help unlockLNG demand in the West Africa region.
The project aims to build and operate a floating storageregasification unit (FSRU) with an initial capacity of 100million cubic feet that would gradually be brought up to 400million cubic feet.
"Many electricity-producing projects are awaiting a gassupply to really kick off," Ibrahima Diaby, the director generalof Petroci, said at the signing ceremony in Abidjan on Thursday.
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.
Total will make a final investment decision on the projectin the first quarter of 2017, a spokeswoman 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. (Additional reporting by Bate Felix in Paris; Writing By AaronRoss; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)
