QatarEnergy has made a hydrocarbon discovery off the Republic of Congo, adding to the Gulf producer’s international upstream portfolio as it is recovering from Iranian attacks that knocked out significant liquefied natural gas (LNG) production capacity.
The MHNM-6 NFW exploration well, drilled under the Moho offshore licence, encountered a 160-metre hydrocarbon column in good-quality Albian reservoirs, the state energy company said. The discovery was made in TotalEnergies E&P Congo's (TEPC) deep offshore oil project.
The well was drilled by TEPC, in which QatarEnergy holds a 15 per cent stake. TotalEnergies operates the licence with a 63.5 per cent interest, with Trident Energy (21.5 per cent) and Societe Nationale des Petroles du Congo (15 per cent) holding the remainder.
The find adds to QatarEnergy's growing exploration footprint in Africa. The company has been among the most active global explorers in recent years, with assets in Egypt, Namibia, South Africa, Mauritania and Libya, as part of its strategy to produce 500,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from outside Qatar by 2030.
Africa accounts for 40 per cent of global gas discoveries made since the mid-2010s, concentrated in new frontiers such as Mozambique, Senegal, Tanzania and Namibia.
Capacity impact
The discovery also comes as QatarEnergy, one of the world's largest LNG producers, is recovering from the aftermath of debilitating Iranian air strikes on its Ras Laffan liquefaction plant, which is the largest in the world.
The company supplies about a fifth of the global output of the super-chilled gas.
Iranian attacks knocked out around 17 per cent of QatarEnergy's LNG export capacity. The strikes removed 12.8 million tonnes per year (mtpa) from the market, with chief executive Saad Al Kaabi estimating annual lost revenue at $20 billion and repairs taking three to five years.
Ras Laffan is unlikely to be fully back online before the end of August, assuming a restart begins in May, energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie said in a report. Recovery is further complicated by lead times of two to four years on replacement gas turbines, which are produced by only three manufacturers worldwide.
QatarEnergy has declared long-term force majeure on supply contracts with buyers in China, South Korea, Italy and Belgium. Separately, production has begun at the first train of Golden Pass LNG, a joint venture between QatarEnergy (70 per cent) and ExxonMobil (30 per cent) in the US, with full capacity expected to reach 18.1 mtpa across three trains.
