Chevron still sees Angola LNG startup by year-end

Oil and gas giant Chevron is still expecting the Angola LNG export plant to restart operations by the end of this year.

The US$10 billion LNG plant, which shipped its first cargo in June of 2013, was shut down in April last year after a major rupture on a flare line.

“Work is still underway. The overall plan is to have Angola LNG restart with LNG to the tank in the fourth quarter of this year, probably late in the fourth quarter this year,” Patricia Yarrington, VP and CFO of Chevron told the company’s first quarter earnings conference call on Friday.

According to Yarrington, Chevron expects Angola LNG to be operating at 75% of capacity by the first quarter of 2016.

“The plant will run for a period of time and then ALNG will make a decision as to whether or not they need to take the plant down to perform any sort of shutdown, strainer removal, that kind of cleanup activity,” she said.

“In any case, we would expect ALNG to reach maximum capacity in the second quarter of 2016, if they decide to do those strainer removals,” Yarrington added.

Angola LNG is a joint venture between Sonangol (22.8%), Chevron (36.4%), BP (13.6%), Eni (13.6%), and Total (13.6%).

The LNG plant, located in Soyo, is a single-train facility able to produce 5.2 million tonnes per year.

Angola LNG also has a dedicated fleet of seven vessels that carry the chilled gas.

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LNG World News Staff; Image: Bechtel