Partnership with Afren21 Aug 2009 11:11
The worldwide natural gas markets are growing rapidly, due to high oil prices, growth in demand for energy, and natural gas being competitive for power generation. The increasing demand, and the substantial distances between where gas is needed and where gas is produced, has fuelled the growth in the LNG business. Worldwide LNG markets are expected to show high growth..“Afren’s statement of intention to assemble gas reserves in partnership with African LNG marked a major step forward for Gasol”.
Gasol’s strategy for creating value by connecting LNG produced in West and Central Africa to high value markets is particularly timely. It is a well known fact that West and Central Africa, especially Nigeria, has one of the largest untapped gas reserves (reserves estimated at 300 tcf, out of which 80% is in Nigeria). Its gas reserves are significantly larger than those of major producers such as Algeria, Australia, Canada and Venezuela, and they are comparable with reserves of Western Europe, the US and the United Arab Emirates respectively. Much of the gas has fragmented ownership providing an opportunity to pool the gas into economic sizes for liquefaction and export. The region also has large quantities of gas being flared, which provides an opportunity for monetising flared gas by putting in place appropriate technology and infrastructure.
............. Significant progress has been made through its investee company, AfLNG (in which Gasol holds a