After more than two decades of fits and starts, the Banda gas project off Mauritania’s Atlantic coast looks for the first time like a genuine development project rather than a paper exercise. What was long considered a marginal offshore field is being repositioned as a small-but-strategic domestic gas-to-power project that could both firm up Nouakchott’s electricity supply and give Mauritania a second gas pillar alongside the flagship 15tcf Greater Tortue-Ahmeyim (GTA) development (MEES, 30 May).
Mauritania’s only gas-capable power plant is the 180MW Thermique plant that currently burns fuel oil. Energy Minister Mohamed Ould Khaled announced plans earlier this year to add 550MW of gas-fired capacity, and Banda can provide momentum to this (MEES, 15 August). (CONTINUED - 826 WORDS)
