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BP operates GTA with a 56 percent working interest alongside Kosmos Energy (27 percent), Petrosen (10 percent), and SMH (7 percent).
According to its AIS data provided by VesselsValue, the 2019-built 173,400-cbm, British Sponsor, which is on charter to BP, was on Wednesday underway after loading a cargo from Golar LNG’s FLNG Gimi, which is located at the GTA hub.
British Sponsor’s final destination was not available on Wednesday.
BP confirmed the departure of the first LNG cargo in a statement on Thursday.
The export of this cargo will confirm Mauritania and Senegal as LNG-exporting nations, BP said.
BP did not provide further details regarding the shipment.
Dallas-based Kosmos said in a separate statement that the cargo was lifted by British Sponsor.
The first cargo was fully loaded at about 174,000 cubic meters of LNG.
Moreover, a second LNG carrier is currently waiting near the hub terminal in preparation for the second cargo lifting, Kosmos said.
Tortue FLNG
Kosmos said in February that the first LNG cargo is “expected later this quarter, with an LNG tanker currently standing by the hub terminal ready for loading.”
In January, BP and its partners started flowing gas from wells at the GTA Phase 1 LNG project to its floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel for the next stage of commissioning.
At the FPSO, gas is being processed to remove any condensate, water, and impurities ahead of delivery to the floating LNG vessel for liquefaction.
The FLNG started producing LNG in February.
The first phase of the delayed project features Golar LNG’s FLNG Gimi and the Tortue FPSO.
In February last year, the 2.7 mtpa FLNG, which was converted from a 1975-built Moss LNG carrier with a storage capacity of 125,000 cbm, arrived at the GTA hub.
After that, the project’s FPSO unit also arrived at the GTA project off the coasts of Mauritania and Senegal in May.
The partners previously signed a sales and purchase agreement under which BP Gas Marketing will offtake 2.45 million tonnes per annum of LNG from the first phase of the GTA project for an initial term of up to 20 years.
BP’s unit is the sole offtaker of the project’s volumes.
(This article was updated with statements by BP and Kosmos.)