UK-based Ophir Energy has once again been forced to delay taking a final investment decision on its challenging Fortuna floating liquefied natural gas project off Equatorial Guinea, jeopardising its planned start-up date of 2020.

Project sanction is now forecast to take place in the first quarter of next year, almost two years beyond Ophir’s original aim of mid-2016.

On a positive note, however, the Equatorial Guinea government granted the operator a much-needed 12-month extension — to December 2018 — of the licence covering Block R, whch hosts the deep-water Fortuna gas complex.

Ophir and its partners are still in talks to finalise funding for the innovative project, which will be based on a novel FLNG vessel designed by Golar LNG, the first example of which is currently being installed on Perenco’s 500 billion cubic foot Sanaga Sud gas field off Cameroon.

Discussions have been ongoing with a group of Chinese banks, though Ophir said it is now assessing alternative funding options which are “at an advanced stage.”

Ophir said it expects to be in a position to select a funding option and finalise financing arrangements by the middle of next month, putting it in a position to make a final investment decision during the first quarter of 2018.

Despite talks with the Chinese banks taking longer than expected, Ophir’s chief executive Nick Cooper argued that: “The discussions we have had in recent weeks make us more confident than ever that shareholders will realise significant value from Fortuna.”

Most recently, a final investment decision had been expected before the end of this year, with first gas anticipated in mid-2020.

As a result of this delay, and assuming Fortuna’s FLNG vessel will take about 36 months to be delivered after project sanction, this could mean first gas slipping into 2021, said David Round, analyst at BMO Capital Markets.

“We expect broadly similar funding terms (and) economics although a further delay to (a final investment decision) to the first quarter of 2018 will put pressure on our existing start-up assumptions,” which BMO currently assumes to be mid-2020.

One project watcher suggested potential financiers are likely waiting on successful start-up of Perenco’s Hilli Episeyo LNG vessel before signing off on funding arrangements for the Fortuna unit.

The key differences between the two units is that the Fortuna vessel has a much bigger capacity and will be installed in deep water, potentially exposing it to harsher motion conditions than the Kribi vessel which is moored on the continental shelf.

According to satellite data, Hilli Episeyo is on location at Kribi after being towed to Cameroon by Teekay’s ALP Striker vessel.

Ophir and its partners plan to lease the Fortuna FLNG unit from OneLNG, a joint venture of Golar LNG and Schlumberger. The vessel is expected to have a capacity of 2.2 million to 2.5 million tonnes per annum and will access about 2.6 trillion cubic feet of gas.

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Fresh delay hits Ophir's plans for Fortuna FID