This is a best prospect industry sector for this country. Includes a market overview and trade data.
Since Kosmos Energy discovered a large natural gas deposit off the coast of Mauritania and Senegal in 2014, interest in Mauritanian offshore energy has exploded. Three of the world’s supermajors are currently exploring opportunities off the Mauritanian coast with 22 offshore blocks remaining open for negotiations. While the government has solicited for tenders in the past, they are also open to unsolicited offers in this sector.
Opportunities
In order to extract the gas from the Tortue natural gas field, BP is building a floating liquified natural gas (FLNG) hub off the coast of Mauritania and Senegal. Given the FLNG hub, the offshore engineering equipment and services sector is rife with opportunity. The Mauritanian government would like to make the port city of Nouadhibou into a regional hub (due to heavy fishing activity and increasing petroleum activity), which will require rehabilitation of the current 300,000 metrics tons (MT) oil storage capacity in Nouadhibou. Additionally, the government would like to expand the storage capacity of oil products in Nouakchott by 150,000 MT.
The Mauritanian government is looking to encourage more development in their onshore oil and gas sector, specifically in the Taoudenni Basin, located in western Mauritania. There are indicators that the Taoudenni Basin has a reserve, although the five wells that have been drilled to-date have not yielded results. The Mauritanian government currently has 15,000 kilometers of 2D seismic data for this basin.
Finally, the government would like to build a refinery as well as expand the petrochemical and green hydrogen industry in the country.
Resources
The Mauritanides conference is one of the region’s largest international mining & energy conferences held biannually in Nouakchott, Mauritania. This conference gathers top representatives from the mining, hydrocarbon, investment, banking, and service sectors along with equipment producers for three days of networking, knowledge sharing, and business matching. https://www.mauritanidesmr.com/.