By Adedapo Adesanya
The commissioning of the 300MMscfd capacity Kwale gas gathering and injection facility in the Niger Delta will resume after it was put on hold following the nationwide industrial strike by the Labour Unions on Monday.
According to a statement by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), the technical commissioning will now be held on Thursday, June 6, 2024, after its successful completion as organised labour suspended the strike temporarily on Tuesday.
The injection facility located in the Umusam Community, near Kwale in Delta State, Niger Delta, is a joint venture between Nedogas Development Company Limited (NDCL), Xenergi Limited and NCDMB Capacity Development Intervention Company, in collaboration with the NNPC Gas Infrastructure Company (NGIC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.
The formal commissioning ceremony will be performed by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Mr Ekperikpe Ekpo, and will be supported by the Governor of Delta State, Mr Sheriff Francis Orohwedor Oborevwori, and the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Mr Felix Ogbe.
The KGG facility was designed to handle stranded gas resources in Nigeria’s OML 56 oil province, by providing the opportunity for independent operators in the area, to monetise natural gas from their fields through the gas gathering, compression, injection and metering infrastructure of the KGG for quick market access.
The KGG hub, which has been tied into the NGIC-owned and operated 48-inch OB-3 gas trunk line, is now fully commissioned with gas injection capacity totalling approximately 50 MMscfd comprising 20MMscfd from the Nedogas Plant, located 3km away in Energia’s Ebendo field, and another 30 MMscfd coming from the Matsogo field operated by Chorus Energy Limited. Injected gas volumes are gradually and steadily being ramped up.
“This project represents a significant milestone in Nigeria’s decade of gas initiative, as well as a major achievement in the quest to provide gas into the OB3 trunk line and monetise natural gas resources from the OML 56 producer cluster,” according to the statement.
With the successful injection of gas from the Energia/Oando JV and the Chorus-operated Ebendo and Matsogo fields respectively into the OB3, NCDMB said the KGG Facility is now poised to receive additional gas from nearby fields, including those operated by First Hydrocarbon Nigeria (FHN), Pillar Oil, and Midwestern Oil & Gas, all aimed at positioning KGG as a fully-fledged gas-gathering facility and hub, with single point injection of up to 300 MMscfd of gas into the OB3 via the KGG tie-in.
The plan is to expand the capacity of the KGG facility to 600 MMscfd in the second phase.
In addition to the gas delivery obligations of the facility, the KGG will also be supplying the Delta State Economic Zone (DSEZ) from an integrated supply node within the manifold at the hub.
NCDMB’s equity investment in NDCL is one of the strategic projects geared towards actualising FG’s aspirations in key areas of the oil and gas industry. Most of NCDMB’s third-party investments are targeted at actualising the Federal Government Decade of Gas programme.
“The investments are in line with the Board’s mandate to build capacity and catalyze local projects in the Nigerian oil and gas industry as enshrined under the Nigeran Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act,” the statement added.
With an estimated 180 billion cubic feet of proven Natural gas reserves, Nigeria has the ninth largest concentration in the world, however, sadly enough, the country continues to flare significant quantities of associated gas which have relegated the health and environmental well-being of Nigerians to the background for over 60 years.
The government has continuously said that natural gas remains a relatively clean fossil fuel, and represents a viable transition to renewable energy which plays a pivotal role in powering the growth of developing economies like Nigeria.
“The KGG facility is set to create hundreds of direct and indirect jobs for indigenes of the host and nearby communities,” the statement added.
Aduragbemi Omiyale