Equatorial Guinea says Schlumberger walked away from Fortuna project

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CAPE TOWN, June 6 (Reuters) - Equatorial Guinea"s energyminister on Monday said Schlumberger (LSE: 0CT7.L - news) had walked awayfrom the country"s Fortuna floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG)project but he also said he was confident it would besuccessful.

Fortuna, Africa"s first deep-water independent floatingliquefied natural gas project, is one of a number planned whenenergy prices were higher. The offshore field is expected toproduce 2.2 million tonnes per annum.

Oil and gas explorer Ophir Energy (Other OTC: OPGYF - news) in April said ithad ended talks with Schlumberger over the U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . company"supstream participation in Fortuna.

Energy minister Obiang Lima said he was confident theproject would go ahead and be successful, with Equatorial Guineataking an equity stake via its state-owned companies.

"Some people were a little bit hesitant after Schlumberger (Hanover: SCL.HA - news)left but the problem with Schlumberger is that they wanted tomonopolise everything and we don"t want that," Lima toldReuters on the sidelines of an oil and gas conference in CapeTown.

"Some people thought they left because the project was notprofitable. That is not the case - it was because they wanted todo everything and we cannot allow one service company to doeverything," he said.

Schlumberger was not immediately available to comment.

Ophir said it was talking to a range of equity investors, aswell as gas buyers, to help to finance the project.

"We"ve done all the work in a very difficult environment todeliver a very investable project, (including) bringing down thecapital costs of first gas by half to what they were 12 monthsago, to $450 million, which is huge," Bill Higgs, Ophir"s chiefoperating officer, said. (Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Editing by Ed Stoddard and JaneMerriman)

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