Dubai-based global Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) solutions provider, Lloyds Energy, says it is evaluating several investment opportunities in LNG, floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs), as well as downstream gas infrastructure across high growth markets.
Lloyds’ interest comes as the development of Africa’s regasification capacity remains incomplete. Several African countries have for decades announced plans for LNG import terminals to supply power plants or industrial users., with just few of those projects fully operational at present.
To meet its electricity needs, Benin Republic signed an agreement with TotalEnergies in 2019 to develop a floating LNG import and regasification terminal with an annual capacity of 500,000 tonnes.
The facility was expected to supply the Maria Gléta thermal power plant and help the country reduce its dependence on fuel oil while positioning itself as a regional gas hub. Since the announcement, however, no major public update has been provided on the project.
Côte d’Ivoire is also among the early adopters of this strategy. In 2017, the CI-GNL consortium, which includes Total, SOCAR, Shell, Petroci, Golar LNG and CI Energies, announced plans for a regasification terminal at Vridi.
Originally expected to come online in 2018, the project has since seen few public updates regarding its progress. Equatorial Guinea also unveiled plans in 2019 for the first sub-Saharan storage and regasification facility as part of the LNG2Africa program, which aims to create a regional LNG market, with little tangible progress achieved so far.
In Ghana, where gas demand is rising rapidly as electricity generation capacity expands while industrialisation accelerates, the Tema LNG import terminal is now about 95 per cent complete, according to the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).
The project, developed with Spain’s Reganosa, is expected to help the country supplement domestic gas supply, which has become insufficient to meet demand projected to reach nearly one billion standard cubic feet per day by 2036.
South Africa is home to what appears to be the continent’s most advanced project. In May, Transnet National Ports Authority awarded Ukwanda LNG a 25-year concession to develop an onshore regasification terminal at the Port of Ngqura.
The facility is part of South Africa’s energy transition strategy and is intended to support the development of 3,000 megawatts of gas-fired power generation capacity while strengthening the port’s role as an energy hub.
Unlike several African projects that have remained at the planning stage, this project now has a long-term contractual framework, is integrated into national energy planning, and has a clearly defined industrial roadmap.
Lloyds Energy’s venture into the sib-regional oil sector reflects growing investor interest in markets where gas consumption is expected to continue increasing in response to rising electricity demand and industrialisation.
Even so, the challenge is no longer limited to identifying investment opportunities. The ability of governments to secure financing, structure partnerships, guarantee commercial demand, and bring projects into operation has become the main differentiating factor.
Africa now offers growth potential widely recognised by international investors, but its regasification sector remains largely underdeveloped.
Lloyds Energy’s announcement therefore reflects less the emergence of a new, structured market than a continued bet on demand expected to grow, with realisation depending on the ability of African projects to move beyond the planning stage and into operation.
The company highlighted South and Southeast Asia, eastern India, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, and “certain African markets” as regions where demand for regasification infrastructure is expanding rapidly due to industrialisation, rising electricity demand, and efforts to strengthen energy security.
