Chevron: "Very Close" to First Angola LNG Supplies from Would Be Flared Gas

KUALA LUMPUR: Chevron Corp. (CVX) and its partners expect in the very near future to load their first liquefied natural gas cargo from Angola using gas that previously would have been flared, opening up a new source of supply for Asian and European markets.

“We are very close,” Chevron Vice Chairman George Kirkland said “We are approaching first gas there. We will have an announcement very soon.”

The 5.2 million-ton-a-year output planned from the project is unique, Mr. Kirkland said, as it is the world’s only LNG gasification plant using associated gas–gas produced as a byproduct from existing oil fields.

Most associated gas currently being flared. Liquefying it will allow Angola to turn waste into revenue.

Originally the plan had been to deliver the LNG to the U.S., but “at this point in time it makes little sense to be delivering LNG to the oversupplied situation in the U.S.,” Mr. Kirkland said.

“It is going to markets around the world…into the global system, directed to Europe and Asia,” he told Dow Jones Newswires.

The other partners in the project are BP PLC (BP), Italy’s Eni SpA (E), Sociedade Nacional de Combustiveis de Angola, or Sonangol, and Total SA (TOT).

In 2011, Chevron produced around 540,000 barrels a day of oil from Angola’s offshore oil fields.