No equity gas from Mozambique basin, but India could get third or fourth train

BPRL present in seven countries including India. Of these, company's assets in five countries have shown promising discoveries

India may have a significant stake in Mozambique's Rovuma Basin, but the country still cannot have equity gas. With ONGC and Oil India recently bagging a 20% stake in the block along with the 10% stake already held by Bharat Petro Resources Limited (BPRL), India’s position in the consortium has become strong, making it the second-largest shareholder after Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, the operator of the block.

The first cargo of gas will be commercially available in 2018.

“We are the single largest team with 30% stake in the consortium. Although we do not have the option of equity gas, we would be jointly marketing the gas. Initial gas trains may not come to India, but we should be able to bring the third or fourth train,” a senior BPRL executive told Business Standard.

Each liquefaction train will have a capacity of five million tonnes a year.

BPRL is present in seven countries including India. Of these, the company’s assets in five countries have shown promising discoveries.

Rovuma Area-1 Offshore Block holds an estimated recoverable reserves of 35-65 trillion cubic ft (tcf) of gas. This discovery could make Mozambique possibly the second-largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter in the world after Qatar. “The reservoir is bigger than what we envisaged. We would be jointly marketing the gas,” the official added. Rovuma's find is 20 times India's current annual gas consumption.

Anadarko and its consortium partners have been in discussions for marketing natural gas from Rovuma Basin. The partners are eyeing sale of gas to Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

Among the Indian companies with whom the consortium is holding discussions are BPCL, Petronet LNG and GAIL. Going forward, the list will expand. The capex for the programme is around $20 billion, which will be shared by the consortium partners.

BPRL to invest in Australia

BPRL, the overseas upstream subsidiary of state-run Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, will invest a total of $15 million in its shale gas block in Australia. The company is currently in the second phase of testing wells. It has already invested $13 million and will be investing another $2 million, the executive quoted above said on the sidelines of Petrotech 2014 here.