Equitorial Guinea 'gas mega hub' project progresses, with first gas from Alen field

Infrastructure for the project, led by Noble Energy which Chevron acquired in late 2020, consists of a 70-km pipeline with a capacity of 950 million cubic feet of natural gas equivalent per day. The pipeline allows gas from the Alen field, located in the Douala Basin offshore Equatorial Guinea, to be processed through existing onshore facilities in Equitorial Guinea.

“As a company, we are proud to be a strategic partner in this joint effort, and we look forward to continuing to contribute to the economic and social development of the country,” said Noble Energy vice president and country manager Gene Kornegay.

The Alen gas monetisation project is part of Equatorial Guinea’s plans to create a ’gas mega hub’, which seeks to utilise existing infrastructure to build a gas energy industry within Equatorial Guinea and to develop the first successful cross-border gas venture on the African continent. Equatorial Guinea launched Africa’s first offshore gas mega hub in 2019, signing agreements with Marathon Oil, Noble Energy, Atlas Petroleum, Glencore and Gunvor to process stranded gas from the Alen and Aseng gas fields. The move aims to offset production declines at the country’s Alba field and to tap stranded gas reserves along maritime borders with Cameroon and Nigeria.

The Alen gas project facilitates the transport of gas from offshore production infrastructure to existing onshore facilities at Punta Europa (the Alba Plant and the Equatorial Guinea LNG Plant), where it will be processed and converted into LNG, allowing for future discovered resources to be processed in the country and supporting the further development of downstream gas industries to spur industrial development and economic growth.