Cotonou FSRU

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Cotonou FSRU is an LNG terminal under development in Benin. There have been no updates in over five years and the project is presumed to be cancelled. However, in 2019 a similar project was proposed by TotalEnergies and the Republic of Benin called Benin FSRU.

Location

The map below shows the port of Cotonou, in Littoral department, Benin. The proposed LNG terminal would be a floating terminal, and would be anchored in the port.

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Project details

• Operator:
• Owner: Gasol; Socar Trading
• Parent company: Gasol; Socar
• Location: Cotonou, Benin
• Coordinates: 6.346, 2.429 (approximate)
• Capacity:
• Status: Cancelled
• Type: Import
• Start year:

Background

In December 2012, the London-headquartered West African energy company Gasol announced a partnership with SOCAR, the Azerbaijani state-owned oil company, to build a floating LNG storage and regasification unit in the harbor of Cotonou, Benin's largest city.

The motivation for the project was complex and centered on Gasol's goal of marketing natural gas to West African countries. While Gasol hoped to commercialize natural gas that is currently being offgassed by Nigerian oil producers, that gas production was not expected to materialize for a number of years. The West African Gas Pipeline, connecting Nigeria with Benin, Togo, and Ghana, and operated by Chevron, was hypothetically completed in 2006, but the pipeline had problems with technical malfunctions and international disagreements since then. Gasol's goal in constructing the Cotonou FSRU was to provide a stopgap source of gas to Benin, Togo, and Ghana, via the West African Gas Pipeline, until Nigerian gas production was able to increase. Gasol aimed to market the gas to power producers, who would use it to replace diesel oil for electricity production, as well as to industrial customers.

Also in 2012, Gasol partnered with Société BenGaz, a Beninese company run by a prominent national politician. In February 2014, the President of Benin gave an initial green light to the project. In June 2015, after a year of negotiations, Benin's energy ministry gave Gasol permission to conduct detailed studies on the project.

There have been no updates on the project since mid-2015 and the project is presumed to be cancelled as of 2019. Gasol's website, as of June 2017, had also not been updated since then.

In 2019, a similar project was proposed by Total S.A. and the Republic of Benin called Benin FSRU.