Ophir Energy says it has concluded commercial terms and is about to sign heads of agreements for the production of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) from the Fortuna FLNG project in Block R, Offshore Equatorial Guinea.

The company in a statement declared that it reached the agreement with a selected group of LNG buyers known worldwide. It added that under the heads of agreement, the overall demand of the group exceeds the obtainable output from the project which is capable of delivering into both the Atlantic and Pacific Basins.

Ophir anticipates that by the end of November all the heads of agreements would have been signed and a further selection process will follow, “to select one or two of these LNG Buyers with whom to sign full Sales & Purchase Agreements (SPAs) in Q1 of 2016. This timing is in line with the planned project’s Final Investment Decision (FID) in mid-2016”.

According to the company, the estimate of gross contingent resource on Block R has been increased to 3.0 tcf from 2.6 tcf.

 “The fact that the Fortuna FLNG Project delivers economically attractive returns in the current price environment and its attracting quality downstream partners is a testimony to the relative cost competitiveness of the project. The finalization and signing of Heads of Agreement for the offtake with leading LNG players is another major step in derisking the project on the run to FID,” Nick Cooper, Chief Executive Officer of Ophir told Offshore energy today.