The Birallah gas field, the world's most promising gas discovery of 2019, is considered one of the largest gas fields in West Africa so far. It is the culmination of exploration operations carried out by BP and Kosmos Energy offshore since 2012, which also led to the discovery of Grand Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA), reserves shared by Mauritania and Senegal and which, barring any last-minute unforeseen events, are expected to be "the firs gas" in 2023.
BirAllah's estimated reserves are in the order of 50 trillion TCF of gas, confirmed after the drilling of "Marsouin 1", in 2015, and "Orca 1", in 2019, with a depth of more than 2,500 metres under the sea.
The BirAllah gas field is located in Block 8 of the Mauritanian coastal basin, about 60 kilometres north of GTA, and about 100 kilometres from the Mauritanian coast, opposite the Ndiago area in the wilaya of Trarza.
A new exploration and production sharing contract
Block C8 containing the BirAllah field is one of four blocks for oil and gas exploration awarded by the Mauritanian government in 2012 to the US company Kosmos Energy.
Following the announcement of the major gas discoveries at GTA and BirAllah, British Petroleum (BP) acquired 60% of the blocks, making it the lead operator for the development and exploitation of the gas in these two fields.
Despite the progress of work on the joint Mauritania-Senegal field (GTA), BP has chosen to suspend its development activities at BirAllah until the expiry of its operating licence in May 2022, which has made it necessary to restart the whole process in order to make it possible for the company and the Mauritanian government to continue cooperating on the development and exploitation of this important gas field.
It is in this context that the Mauritanian government approved, in June 2022, the draft decree authorising the updating of the data of the BirAllah field and its granting, in a new exploration and production sharing contract, to take this area out of the petroleum domain, from the competitive bidding process referred to in Article 18 of the Crude Oil Code. And it is on the basis of these procedures that an exploration licence was granted, once again, to the BP/Kosmos Energy duo, on 11 October 2022, under a new 30-month agreement. This period is likely to be sufficient to carry out the new studies in preparation for the signature of the final investment decision and the start of development and exploitation of the BirAllah field.
The rate of state participation
According to the press release issued by the Ministry of Oil, Energy and Mines, the new agreement allows Mauritania to increase its level of participation in the BirAllah field to 29% instead of the 14% provided for in the previous contracts, including the PSC of the GTA field for gas shared between Mauritania and Senegal.
In an interview with "The Vision", the Director General of Hydrocarbons at the Ministry of Oil, Mr. Moustapha Ould Béchir, explained that the increase in the state's participation rate in the BirAllah field will enable it to implement its master plan oil and gas development gas. This plan has to insert the financial resources from gas exploitation into the national economic fabric and thus achieve the best possible benefit from the revenues from its exploitation.
And according to observers, this exceptional participation rate should allow the Mauritanian state to have a stronger position in the development of the field and the choice of the best technical and strategic model for its exploitation. This is in addition to the more efficient participation in the development of local content in the choice of companies providing services and recruitment of the necessary workforce.
It is also believed that this rate will allow the state, if it wishes, to bring other companies into the field in return for the development and exploitation of other oil and gas projects, such as the Banda field and all the surrounding oil and gas wells.
Considering that the Mauritanian state will take the decision to fully finance its participation in the BirAllah field, the mobilisation of the necessary resources will be easier, compared to the difficulties encountered by the government in the case of GTA shared with Senegal, thanks to the expected revenues from the exploitation of phase I and II of Grand Tortue Ahmeyim.
Onshore operating facilities
The parties involved in the BirAllah field have agreed in principle on the need to develop the infrastructure for the exploitation of this gas field at the port of N'Diago, instead of having these facilities in the open sea. This is in consideration of the favourable technical and economic characteristics, according to Ould El Bechir, in his comment on this agreement between the Mauritanian state and the partners BP/Kosmos Energy. Ould El Bechir added that this choice will have positive repercussions in the field of local content development through the availability of manpower and the active participation of local companies in the various stages of development and exploitation of the field, in addition to the ease of increasing production and developing infrastructure in general.
This choice responds to recurrent requests from national observers who closely follow the development of the Mauritanian economy and who consider that the good management of this gas field could be a capital contribution to local development in the N'Diago area, particularly for the eponymous port recently built in this town.
The construction of the BirAllah onshore infrastructure is also, more likely, a strategic choice for the N'Diago area, which will host other energy-related infrastructure, including the industrial village dedicated to the gas and oil trades, and those intended to transport Mauritania's share of the GTA field.
Huge challenges and promising prospects
Some observers of the energy sector in Mauritania point to a number of challenges facing the development of BirAllah, including the long delay in starting work on the field due to a number of reasons, including the economic conditions created by the spread of the Covid-19 virus.
These conditions have forced the companies holding the BirAllah licence (BP and Kosmos Energy) to delay considerably the procedures preparing the exploitation of this field, especially as the investments mobilised for the exploitation of GTA have increased considerably due to the rise in prices and the delay in production.
On the other hand, the new global focus on renewable energy is likely to be one of the main factors leading to the delay in BirAllah's development, especially as BP has made great strides in other renewable energy development and exploitation projects in recent years. This is probably what the Oxford Institute for Energy Research points out in its latest report, citing the reluctance of European countries to sign long-term agreements for the purchase of hydrocarbons and the drastic decline in funding mobilised by states and international companies to invest in new fossil fuel fields.
Pending the outcome of the studies preparing the start of the development of the project, the BirAllah field remains, to date, the most important gas project in the area, both in terms of its significant reserves and its geographical position, which places it within reach of European markets eagerly awaiting an alternative to Russian gas.
The latter is an important factor for the exploitation of the field, especially as most European countries have started to review their strategies for transition to renewable energy following the gas crisis caused by the Russian-Ukrainian war. This offers BirAllah new prospects and greater attractiveness.
In any case, natural gas is one of the main "bridges" in the energy transition to renewable energies, as it is the least polluting of all fossil fuels, which puts it in a good position to cohabit, for a long time, with strategies aimed at combating climate change, on the one hand, and ensuring energy security, on the other.
By Mohamed EKA