Oil Minister, BP Regional President Visit Rockfill Storage Center at Nouakchott Port
The Minister of Oil, Energy and Mines, Mr. Abdesselam Ould Mohamed Saleh, visited, on Friday, with BP’s regional president for Mauritania and Senegal, Mr. Emil ISMAYLOV, the rockfill storage center located at the Port of Nouakchott.
The purpose of the visit was to see how work is coming along at the level of the first phase of development of the Great Turtle Ahmeyim gas field (GTA), particularly the construction of the breakwater at the production site.
The “breakwater construction” component, of which the site visited is part, is made up of three major components: the rock extraction mine at Lehjar Eddekhen, the transport of rocks between the mine and the port of Nouakchott and the loading and installation of rocks.
At the end of the visit, the Minister specified that “this remarkable work is evidence of the good cooperation between the two States of Mauritania and Senegal, under the patronage of His Excellency Mr. Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, President of the Republic and His Excellency Mr. Macky Sall, President of the Republic of Senegal, and our partners BP and KOSMOS”.
The minister also thanked BP for its renewed commitment to the development of GTA and for the efforts made in this direction.
He added that in terms of the positive socio-economic benefits of the project, this component has allowed the creation of more than 1,100 direct jobs and 200 indirect ones, as well as the involvement of dozens of local companies.
He concluded by saying that “despite the particular context aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the GTA project is moving forward and reached a 52% rate of progress by the end of 2020 while the first production of liquefied gas (LNG) is scheduled for 2023.
For his part, Mr. Emil ISMAYLOV, BP’s regional president for Mauritania and Senegal, said he was happy to visit Mauritania and the rockfill storage area for the construction of the first phase of the GTA project. This storage area shows the significant progress our partnership with KOSMOS Energy, SMHPM and PRTEROSEN has made, as he put it.
He added that the rocks were taken from the quarry located in the vicinity of Akjoujt, noting that they constitute one of the important successes in terms of local content of the GTA project.
BP’s regional president then added; “This month we have just reached another important milestone in the work of the project by resuming the transport of rocks to the Hub-Terminal site at sea”.
He further indicated that “as part of the commitment to local content, BP aims to have a positive impact in Mauritania and Senegal. This will be done through the development of local entrepreneurship, investment in sustainable development projects for the benefit of neighboring communities of GTA and the development of national talents among the work force”.
It should be noted that to date, more than one million tons of rock, approximately 50% of the required quantity, have been produced and stored at the site and their loading and installation began two weeks ago.
The opening of a new rock extraction mine in 2020 and its operation using the latest technologies and the transfer of skills for the benefit of the national workforce is a realization of the important local content component of the project.
The local content component was also reinforced by rock transport operations from the production site to this storage center where a surface area of 12 hectares was developed and additional dredging of the south face of the dock was completed carrying the draft to less than 12 m.
According to experts, the GTA gas project will provide our country with revenues amounting to more than two billion dollars, in addition to positive spin-offs on the national socio-economic sector through the creation of jobs and the development of local content, as well as through contracts with project operators and subcontractors.