Africa LNG Spurs Coatings Growth
by Shem Oirere
Africa Correspondent
The discovery and ongoing monetization of new natural gas reserves in Africa has created demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) infrastructure, which require
specialized protection coatings to cushion them
against corrosion, unfavorable temperatures
and changing environmental conditions.
Mozambique and Tanzania have become the
latest entrants in an LNG production league hitherto dominated by Nigeria, Angola, Ghana and
Algeria where contracts worth billions of dollars
have been awarded or are in the pipeline for new
liquefaction plants, gas pipelines, LNG terminals
and floating liquefied natural gas vessels. These
projects are some of the drivers of growth of
Africa’s coatings market in coming months.
Some international coatings companies have
already secured contracts for the supply of various coating solutions to protect the anticipated
or existing LNG infrastructure.
Tanzania and Mozambique, with a combined
natural gas reserve of more than 140 trillion cubic
feet (tcf), are in the race competing for a share of
the global LNG export market against the U.S.,
which targets to export an estimated 70tcf to Asia
by 2020 and also Russia currently in the process of shifting from piped gas to LNG. The East
African countries are hoping to join the LNG export market when liquefaction plants under construction are completed between 2019 and 2021.
International oil and gas companies among
them UK’s BG Group, Ophir Energy, ExxonMobil,
Statoil, Anadarko and Eni have found huge natural gas reserves in East Africa and have proposed
huge projects to commercialize the gas findings.
The infrastructure is expected to consume a substantial amount of protective coating around the
huge amount of steel to be used in the development of the facilities and also on the LNG vessels
so as to delay and limit the effects of fire attacks
and corrosion from both the sea water and soil in
case of gas pipeline.
“New natural gas discoveries in East Africa
have spurred liquefaction plant proposals
though considerable risks abound in this untest-
ed region,” said the report by IGU. “Prolific re-
source discoveries in Mozambique and Tanzania
have led to the proposal of seven trains totalling
35 million metric tons/annum (MTPA) though
potential exists for major expansions.”
After the discovery of 100tcf of natural gas
in Mozambique’s Rovuma Basin, U.S. firm
Anadarko and Italy’s Eni have announced prog-
ress in the construction of four LNG trains with
a capacity of 20 million metric tons per a year,
making it the largest LNG export plant after
Qatar’s Ras Laffan according to IGU.
Anadarko and Eni have awarded front end engineering and design contract to a consortium of
CB&I and Chiyoda Corporation for the liquefaction plant. The LNG plant will get supplies of natural gas from Anadarko’s offshore Area 1 gas fields
including Prosperidade and Golfinho. Additional
natural gas will come from Eni’s offshore Area 4
gas fields including Mamba gas fields.
The liquefaction plant will come with infrastructure requiring special coatings to protect
them from high temperatures, corrosion, fire
and aggressive chemical compounds. Some of
the LNG plant facilities that would require
substantial coatings supplies include storage
tanks, open gas turbines at power generation,
BoG handling, open rack vaporizer, jetty MEG
(Mono Ethylene Glycol)/ water mixture regeneration and storage, slug catcher, gas pre-treat-ment facility, refrigerant and storage facilities,
flare tower, liquefaction and fractionation installations and condensate stabilizers.
To protect these LNG facilities would require deployment of various coating processes depending on the facility and its use. Such
processes could include cathodic protection,
thermally sprayed aluminium and watertight
insulation and cladding.
LNG tanks require exterior coatings to protect
them from the coastal environment and also internal tank coatings to protect the ships to be used in
transporting the LNG to the international market.
Concrete coatings and insulation and also concrete
refurbishment provide additional opportunities for
coating companies in the protective market.
A similar LNG plant was completed in 2012
in neighboring Angola under a contract by U.S.
The discovery
of new natural
gas reserves
in Africa has
created demand
for liquified
natural gas (LNG)
infrasctrucuture,
which require
specialized
protection
coatings to
cushion them
against corrosion,
unfavorable
temperatures
and changing
environmental
conditions.
