Senegal’s Minister discusses future of country’s energy sector at Africa Oil & Power 2019

The key leaders in Senegal’s oil and gas industry united for a ‘Focus on Senegal’ panel at the Africa Oil & Power (AOP) Cape Town 2019 Conference & Exhibition on Wednesday. The aim is to discuss the key opportunities within the country’s emerging hydrocarbons sector. The panel was held in conjunction with the launch of the Africa Energy Series: Senegal 2019 publication, which outlines key investment opportunities and challenges within the sector.

Senegal’s Minister of Petroleum and Energy, H.E. Mouhamadou Makhtar Cissé, promoted the wide range of investment opportunities in the country, including potential for gas monetization and gas-to-power projects, development of the downstream sector through petrochemicals and an upcoming licensing round that features 12 blocks for tender.

“I would like to state the immense opportunities that exist in Senegal, as well as reassure stable regulatory and investment framework. Investors should be excited and ready to take on the challenge to take advantage of Senegal’s opportunities within its oil and gas sector,” H.E. Minister Cissé said.

“Ten years ago, Senegal was still a frontier exploration market. Petrosen has encouraged exploration for decades and in 2014, the country was blessed with an outstanding discovery of oil and gas. Several discoveries have taken place since then, and continue today. Following the discovery of the SNE field, seven appraisal wells were drilled, which include estimated reserves of 400-500 million barrels. Works are still ongoing on this project, and we expect the final investment decision by operator Woodside to be taken by the end of this year,” said Managing Director of national oil company Petrosen, Mamadou Faye.

“On the GTA project, we achieved a final investment decision in December 2018. Phase one is currently ongoing, and we currently have a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) and floating liquified natural gas (FLNG) unit onsite. We expect first production to take place in 2022, making it the fastest LNG project ever. We’re currently in discussion with the operator for phases two and three. In the period between 2022 and 2026, all of these projects will go into production.”

On a drive to promote investment in the country’s emerging energy sector and draw major international operators to Senegal’s shores, Senegal will be launching an oil and gas licensing round, including 12 blocks available for open tender.

“When talking about deep offshore exploration, we have several blocks open today, and we will be launching the licensing round very soon. We currently have 12 blocks open for licensing. Our oil and gas code has already been approved by Parliament and we are waiting for further legal documents to officially launch it. We are also gathering more 3D seismic data, which will be provided to interested operators.”

The panel also addressed growing opportunities within the country’s downstream sector, including the production of petrochemicals through the upgrading and modernization of the country’s sole refinery.

“Under the leadership of H.E. President Macky Sall, two areas have been identified as drivers of the sector: gas-to-power and petrochemicals. The refinery was built in 1962, and there will be a lot of investments going into it in the next few years to upgrade equipment. Investment will go to extending capacities as well as modernizing equipment to process and refine oil coming from the SNE field,” said Serigne Mboup, Managing Director of Societe Africaine de Raffinage.

The Africa Energy Series: Senegal 2019 report provides an in-depth and comprehensive overview of current and future opportunities within Senegal, featuring first hand interviews with the country’s most important hydrocarbons and energy players.