Angola Liquefied Natural Gas (ALNG) is considering future expansion options including adding a mini train of three million metric tons a year, as new gas supplies to the plant ramp up over the next 12 months, energy executives told Reuters.

Extra supplies expected from Chevron CVX.N by year-end and the New Gas Consortium by the end of 2025 will help to take the plant to full capacity for the first time.

Africa’s second-largest crude producer plans to pivot more towards natural gas to capture growing demand in key markets in Europe and Asia.

Angola LNG plant, commissioned more than a decade ago at a cost of $12 billion, has been running below its nameplate capacity for years as gas production fell at the mature fields supplying the facility.

Current supply averages about 700 million standard cubic feet a day (scf), or 70% of operating capacity, government officials said.

New Gas Consortium, a gas project operated by the Azule Energy partnership between BP BP.L and Eni ENI.MI is expected to start production at the end of next year, six months earlier than initially planned, said Azule CEO Adriano Mongini.

The additional supplies from the project will allow ALNG to run at full capacity, with more feedstock anticipated from Angola’s first gas specific exploration well to be drilled early next year, he said on the sidelines of an African energy conference in Cape Town.

“Angola LNG is already thinking about this expansion, if it’s a mini train or one additional train, so there are many ways to do it,” Mongini told Reuters.

Angola LNG, which includes Chevron, TotalEnergies and Sonangol as stakeholders, is designed for a single train of 5.2 million tons a year.

The managing director of Chevron’s Southern African business, Billy Lacobie, said it supported efforts to maximise LNG exports and support the domestic market.

Chevron’s Sanha Lean Gas Connection will increase ALNG utilisation and supply gas for 15 years by filling about 40% of the plant from the end of 2024, an ALNG spokesman said.

Angola’s recently released 25-year gas master plan signalled ambitions to develop more than 40 gas fields and said that the country has 38 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of discovered gas and another 56 tcf of prospective resources.

Source: Reuters reported by Wendell Roelf, edited by David Goodman