By Ayobami Adedinni
Nigeria LNG Limited, yesterday at the World LNG Summit holding in Portugal, announced that the company, with the full support of its Board, is making steady progress towards achieving Final Investment Decision (FID) on its Train 7 Plus (7+) project during 2018.
In a statement signed by the General Manager, External Relations, Kudo Eresia-Eke, the company said this phase’s strategic growth programme will on completion upscale NLNG’s annual production capacity from the current capacity of 22 mtpa to 30 mtpa.
Speaking at the Summit, Tony Attah, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria LNG Limited said, “With Nigeria’s proven reserves of about 192 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and another 600 trillion cubic feet in potential, this milestone development is coming at a crucial time.
“I am excited about this development which would not be possible without the support of our Board and shareholders, the shared vision within our company of helping to build a better Nigeria; our core values of Integrity, Teamwork, Respect, Excellence and Caring; the commitment of our staff; and the cooperation from Governmentand other stakeholders including our loyal customers.
“This milestone would symbolise many things. We have consistently shown the world that NLNG is a world-class company, operating out of a globally strategic country, safely and reliably delivering clean energy to its customers.
“Secondly, and most importantly for Nigeria, it shows that it is time for gas; This is the time to unleash the country’s gas potentials through catalysts like Trains 7 Plus to spur socio economic transformation.
“NLNG remains a success and we are determined to sustain our status as an inspiration to Nigeria. The company has generated $90 billion in revenues as well as paid $5.5 billion in taxes to the government. The company has also has helped monetise the country’s gas resources and significantly contributed to reducing gas flaring from 65% to less than 20%,” he remarked.
NLNG runs an integrated plant on Bonny Island where its current six liquefaction trains share common facilities including storage tanks, shipping capacity and loading jetties with a gas intake of 3.5 billion standard cubic feet of natural gas per day.
The company has so far converted over five trillion cubic feet of associated gas, which otherwise would have been flared, to liquefied natural gas (LNG) and natural gas liquids (NGLs) for both export and domestic use. It is Nigeria’s most significant natural gas utilization intervention to date,which is helping to preserve the environment and support Nigeria’s economic growth.
From an initial investment of about $6 billion, NLNG has grown into a $15.6 billion investment with an asset base of about $11billion.
At a stage in its transition from a 2 (two) train facility to its current 6 (six) train structure, the NLNG facility was recognised as one of the fastest growing such projectsin the LNG world as well as supplier of about 13% of global market supply.
Currently, NLNG is serviced by a committed fleet of23 LNG vessels which is the largest fleet in the sub-region. This is inclusive of six new vessels, constructed in South Korea and delivered between2015 and 2016 as replacements for sixmaturing vessels within its operations inventory.
In addition, NLNG has contributed significantly to the domestic LPG industry, supplying some 40% of cooking gas to Nigerian homes and businesses. This intervention continues as part of strategies and initiatives.
All these have beenachieved with a management staff entirely made up of Nigerians and a workforce which is 95% indigenous.
Through its social investment programmeon which some $200 million has so far been spent, NLNG is helping to improve lives in its immediate environment on Bonny Island and elsewhere across Nigeria.
The company recently flagged off a road project in collaboration with the Nigerian Government to construct a $392 million 34 kilometreroad which will connect several communities in the mainland of Nigeria’s Niger-Delta region to Bonny Island, which was hitherto only accessible by sea.
The project was formally flagged off by Nigeria’s Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, and is the biggest CSR initiative ever by a private company in the country.
Furthermore, NLNG has also recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Bonny Kingdom for the economic development of the Kingdom over a 25-year period.
In that MOU, NLNG committed N3 billion per annum, cumulatively more than $245 million in 25 years to the Bonny community. This will also increase the number of direct and indirect jobs and improve the quality of life on the island.
NLNG is owned by four shareholders, namely, the Federal Government of Nigeria, represented by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC (49 per cent), Shell Gas B.V. (25.6 per cent), Total Gaz Electricite Holdings France (15 per cent), and Eni International N.A. N. V. S.àr. l (10.4 per cent).
