By Modupe Gbadeyanka
A gas deal worth $300 million has been signed between Royal Dutch Shell and Shoreline Energy International, an indigenous firm with interests in power & energy, infrastructure & engineering, investments & trading, as well as telecommunications.
According to Shoreline, the deal is to develop, buy, market, distribute and sell natural gas in the Victoria Island, Ikoyi, Lekki and Epe districts of Lagos State.
On the part of Shell, it would finance and develop a transmission and distribution pipeline network to generate revenues from a 20-year gas concession, originally owned by Gasland Company, in which Shoreline took a 75 percent stake in 2015.
Chairman of Shoreline Energy International, Mr Kola Karim, said the agreement provides his firm the exclusive rights to distribute and sell gas in the above areas.
Mr Karim said, “The partnership is a significant boost to the gas supply efforts of the Federal and Lagos State governments and will deliver tangible benefits to companies and households in Lagos.”
Lagos remains the commercial capital of Africa’s largest economy and plays a huge impact in the economy of Nigeria.
In June this year, Shell said it would place more emphasis on gas rather than oil in Nigeria and this deal is the latest example of global energy groups investing in terminals, pipelines and power infrastructure around Africa as a way to promote gas as the best solution to the continent’s chronic shortage of electricity-generating capacity.
Adedapo Adesanya