The country has accelerated the pace of gas reserves on its Atlantic coast with the award of new exploration contracts, under the watchful eye of the European Union.
Mauritania has signed a gas exploration and production sharing agreement with the British oil company British Petroleum (BP ) and the American Kosmos Energy in a field located in Mauritania's Atlantic waters. Mauritania will start producing liquefied natural gas for the first time in November or December 2023, according to Mauritanian Oil Minister Abdeslam uld Mohamed Saleh.
The minister said the first production will take place at the Grand Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) gas plant in the Gulf of Guinea, located off the Mauritanian-Senegalese border. The field, considered one of the largest in the Gulf of Guinea, could produce up to 10 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas per year at a total cost of $4.6 billion. According to the Mauritanian minister, GTA is one of the deepest projects in the world and requires the use of new technologies that will be used for the first time
The Mauritanian Ministry of Petroleum, Energy and Mines said in a statement that the field, named 'BirAllah', contains reserves of around 2.26 billion cubic metres of gas, adding that the Mauritanian state's share of revenues will be 29%. He explained that the timely production of the field provides sufficient gas resources to realise gas liquefaction options allowing Mauritania to become a future gas producer. The engineering studies for the project should be completed within 30 months, after which a final investment decision will be taken in the first half of 2025.
The EU's thirst for gas which is already affecting countries such as Bangladesh, could find in Mauritania a strong ally with which to conclude various agreements. Although natural gas reserves in Africa are large and North African countries such as Algeria already have pipelines connected to Europe, lack of infrastructure and security problems have long prevented producers in other parts of the continent from increasing their exports.
The field off the coast of Senegal and Mauritania is initially expected to hold around 425 billion cubic metres of gas, five times more than all that heavily gas-dependent Germany used in 2019. But production would not start until early next year.
It will not help solve the energy crisis triggered in Europe by Russia's war in Ukraine. Yet Gordon Birrell, an executive at BP, which is co-sponsoring the project, said that the work "could not be more timely" as Europe tries to reduce its dependence on Russian natural gas for factories, power plants and home heating.
In a further step in its plan to make this vital area its third economic pillar after mineral and marine resources to strengthen its financial resources, Mauritania has accelerated the development of the country's industrial fabric. The government has long focused its attention on gas resources, so its future returns will help it consolidate economic reforms that break with the past in the treatment of investment and production in order to move from self-sufficiency to export. Mauritanians hope that the country's gas wealth will help improve their living conditions and provide job opportunities for young people, while unemployment stands at 30% in the country of some 4 million people .
Industry experts estimate that with the start of exploitation of the discovered gas reserves, Mauritania will become the third largest gas exporter on the African continent after Nigeria and Algeria.