A Final investment decision (FID) on the Venus oil project must be taken before 2027, according to TotalEnergies Namibia.
Speaking on a panel at the Namibia Oil and Gas Conference in Windhoek on Wednesday, joint venture and development director Carlos Menezes said a decision must happen soon.
Menezes said the international oil major is technically ready, with engineering work done and a completed field development plan.
“As everybody knows, the engagement has been ongoing for several months with the authorities: productive, constructive discussions.
We need to finalise those discussions so that we can take advantage of the momentum of the offers we have in hand,” he said.
In order to commission a project like Venus, oil companies invite tenders for multibillion-dollar contracts.
These include for building floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels, as well as subsea work.
“The time is now.
This is not an open-ended window,” Menezes said.
Speaking to The Namibian on Wednesday, he explained that the offers from companies for the contractor work all have validity periods.
The offers can expire, or be extended but only at a cost to the company.
“It’s only for so long that we can push to request to keep those tenders valid.
[They’re] not indefinite,” he said.
Delays can have an impact on cost to the company and in a worst-case scenario – which Menezes said is still far away – the company would need to “take stock of where we are”.
In a presentation prior to the panel discussion, lawyer Shakwa Nyambe presented findings from Wood Mackenzie showing that the FID by Total might be pushed out to 2027.
Menezes said he was disappointed in Mackenzie’s prediction.
“2027, that’s not going to work. We really need to be moving soon on [the decision],” he said.
TotalEnergies chief executive Patrick Pouyanné told investors on 23 July that the consortium of companies working on Venus and the Namibian government had aimed to conclude discussions by the end of July.
“There are discussions progressing.
We’ll see if we can conclude in July or if we need to have a little more time. Technically, I think we have selected all contractors.
We are ready to take the FID subject to finalising discussions with the government of Namibia,” Pouyanné said.
