KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – India’s national oil, gas exploration and production major, ONGC Limited, has concluded long-term sale and purchase agreements for a total of 9.5-million tons a year from future production from its Rovuma Offshore Area I, in Mozambique, the company announced this week.

“The project is progressing towards developing initially an onshore LNG plant consisting of two LNG trains with total nameplate capacity of 12.88-million metric tons per annum to support the development of the Golfinho-Atum field located entirely within the Offshore Area I,” ONGC VIdesh, the offshore investment arm of ONGC, said.

“With the approval of the development plan in February 2018, ongoing resettlement implementation activities, site preparation, execution of sales and purchase agreements, the project was poised to take an investment decision during in the first half of 2019/20,” the statement said.

The partners would make a final decision on the quantum of investments to be committed during the next few months.

The Rovuma offshore oil and gas assets are being developed by a joint venture (JV) of Indian companies such as ONGC Videsh, holding 16% equity stake, Oil India Limited (OIL) which holds 4% and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) at 10%, while the operator of the project, Andarko, holds 26.5% participating interest in the project.

The sales and purchase agreements approved by the Rovuma JV were with Tokyo Gas Company and Centrica LNG Company through a co-purchasing agreement for sale of 2.6-million metric tons a year from the start of production at Rovuma until early 2040.

Another sales and purchase agreement approved was with CNOOC Gas and Power Singapore Trading and Marketing for 1.5-million metric tons a year for 13 years, one-million metric ton a year with Bharat Gas Resources, a subsidiary of BPCL, and one-million metric ton a year with Pertamina, the State-owned Indonesian oil and gas major.