Tema FSRU

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Tema FSRU is a floating LNG import terminal under construction in Accra, Ghana.

Location

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Project Details

• Owner: Tema LNG Terminal Company
• Parent: Helios Investment Partners (50%), Ghana National Petroleum Corporation(GNPC)(50%)
• Operator: Reganosa
• Vessel Name: Vascant
• Location: Tema, Accra, Ghana
• Coordinates: 5.666667, 0 (approximate)
• Capacity: 1.7 mtpa
• Cost: US$350 million
• Financing: US$31 million loan from the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund
• Status: Construction
• Type: Import
• Start Year: 2024
  • Formerly 2023, 2022, 2016

Note: mtpa = million tonnes per year; bcfd = billion cubic feet per day

Background

Tema FSRU is an LNG terminal under construction in Accra, Ghana. The Tema FSRU will comprise a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) that is to be permanently moored offshore at a jetty built by West African Gas. Construction of the terminal began in March of 2017.

Ghana had been trying to get an LNG import project off the ground for years and the project was beginning to look unlikely. Especially when the two leading FSRU operators, Golar and Hoegh, withdrew due to delays over contracts. But in September of 2018, Ghana chose two Chinese companies to build the infrastructure it needs to import liquefied natural gas, resurrecting the $350 million project that would make the country the first in sub-Saharan Africa to buy LNG. Tema LNG, backed by Africa-focused private equity firm Helios Investment, signed deals with China Harbour Engineering Company to build onshore facilities and Jiangnan Shipyard for a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU).

As of July 2019, the terminal was expected to be completed by the second half of 2020. However, the project has been mired in criticism for a lack of financial transparency. In June of 2017, the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation signed a gas supply contract with Rosneft, but in July of 2019 they signed a new agreement with Helios/China Harbor Engineering for the same gas, leading experts to ask for an explanation for the dissolution of the original Rosneft agreement.

In January 2021 it was reported that the FSRU, built by Jiangnan Shipbuilding, had arrived at the site. The Spanish company Reganosa also announced that it had been awarded the contract to operate and maintain the FSRU, and that the LNG will be supplied under a long-term contract with Shell.

Operations have been postponed until the first quarter of 2021.

S&P Global reported in early May 2021 that the Tema terminal was set to receive its first LNG cargo at the end of the month. According to company sources, "The project is operationally ready, and is currently awaiting an agreement between Shell and GNPC on the first delivery date."

In January 2022, Natural Gas World reported that, after continuing delays, the Tema terminal was expected to receive its first cargo in several weeks. Fitch Solutions reported in February 2022 that operations were expected to begin in Q2 2022.

According to the GIIGNL's 2023 report, the project is likely to come online in 2023. An article from the Guardian in August 2023 cited the project coming online in 2025.

GIIGNL's 2024 report, released in June 2024, said that the project was still under construction. In February, the country's oil regulator said it expected the project to be completed by the end of the year and that the government had secured LNG supply from Equatorial Guinea.

In July 2024, Tema LNG said that it had received the FSRU from Jiangnan, China.

Opposition

In December 2019, the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), an energy think-thank, called on the government to halt construction of the Tema project, citing a potential risk of US$820 million per year in liability to the state-owned Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), and to instead utilize domestic gas sources. ACEP said that newly discovered gas resources render external sources irrelevant.

Financing

In 2013, the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) invested about US$61m (about R1.1bn) in the project.

In November 2020, the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund agreed to provide a US$31 million loan to part finance the FSRU. EAIF is part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group. Seven donor countries support the group, as well as the World Bank.