Mauritania's Minister of Petroleum, Abdeslam Mohamed Saleh, has announced that Nouakchott will begin producing liquefied natural gas for the first time in the second half of 2023. This will provide a choice import channel for the European Union, for example. The EU has been in desperate need of hydrocarbons since the sanctions imposed by Brussels on Moscow in the context of the Ukrainian conflict.
In concrete terms, the reserves on the country's Atlantic coast will be explored jointly with the British oil company, British Petroleum (BP) and the American company, Kosmos Energy, with whom an exploration and gas production sharing agreement has been signed.
The Grand Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) site - located off the Mauritania-Senegal border - will be the site of the first national gas development.
29% of operating revenues for Mauritania
Estimates for this production are around 10 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas per year. The total cost of the project is $4.6 billion, as GTA is one of the deepest projects in the world, requiring new technologies.
For information, a final investment decision will be made in the first half of 2025. For its part, the Mauritanian state will benefit from 29% of the site's operating revenues.
