Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has disclosed that it has commenced discussion on the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Train 8 with its partners.
This was made known by the Group Managing Director of the state-owned oil agency, Mr Mele Kyari.
Business Post had reported that NLNG shareholders had signed the Final Investment Decision (FID) for Train 7 in December 2019.
According to the NNPC helmsman, Train 8 is the federal government’s effort at establishing gas hubs that would lead to the creation of other LNG projects.
He said: “The Petroleum Industry Bill itself will ultimately come to pass where an emphasis on gas, monetising gas, and creating the right fiscal environment for gas development will lead to some more LNG projects.
“But more quickly, as we have done FID on Train 7, we have already started speaking to our partners to go to train 8 and indeed, Mr President’s question was that he was surprised that we are still on train 7.″
“He thought we should be talking about Train 8, and I agree with him absolutely because there was enormous room for us to improve.
“But it’s not the number of trains that is significant, it’s the volume of production that is important. For instance, Train 7 is adding almost close to what the current trains are doing.
“We will do this, we will push because this is the easy one and supply the gas and expand it, and of course, we are going to get more and more benefit,” he added.
According to him, having more LNG facilities would create “more jobs, more employment, more expansion of the economy. We agree with this and we are also chasing that appropriately.”
NLNG operates a liquefaction complex comprising six complete liquefaction trains and associated facilities with a capacity of 22 million tonnes per annum (mtpa).
It is owned by four shareholders – the Federal Government of Nigeria, represented by the NNPC which is holding 49 per cent shares; Shell Gas B.V. –25.6 per cent; Total Gaz Electricite Holdings France–15 per cent; and Eni International N.A. N.V. which owns the remaining 10.4 per cent.
