By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its joint Venture (JV) partners have signed the Gas Supply Agreements (GSAs) for the Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) Trains 1, 2, 3, and 7 on Friday, December 13, 2019.
The corporation signed a 20-year term of GSAs for the NLNG Train 7 while it also signed a 10-year term of GSAs for Trains 1, 2, and 3 with its JV partners which include Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), Total Exploration and Production Nigeria (TEPNG), Nigerian Agip Oil company Limited (NAOC) and Oando PLC.
The Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mr Mele Kyari, said that the agreement showed the commitment of all parties to the gas project in the country.
He added that the GSAs bring NLNG closer to taking Final Investment Decision (FID) on train seven, which would be taken before December 20.
“The Train 7 project will ramp up NLNG’s production capacity from 22 Million Tonnes Per Annum (MTPA) to around 30 MTPA.
“The project will form part of the investment of over19 billion dollars including the upstream scope of the NLNG value chain, thereby boosting the much needed FID profile of Nigeria.
“The project is anticipated to create over 10,000 new jobs during its construction phase and on completion help to further mop more gas that would have been flared and diversify the revenue portfolio of Nigeria,” he said.
Making their contribution, one of the parties through the Managing Director of Shell, Mr Osagie Okunbor, said that delivering gas to train 7 was an important part of the project. He advised that Nigeria should consider looking at trains 8 and 12 with its capabilities.
“What we have done here today is very significant and we believe that more will be done in the future,” he said.
Mr Wale Tinubu, Managing Director of Oando, reiterated that his company would be committed to the agreement, saying, “We are happy to be part of this process.”
Another partner, Total’s Patrick Olima assured that the company would be committed to the supply of gas as signed in the agreement.
“We are committed in doing business in Nigeria just like we have done with Egina FPSO, we will do same with this project,” he said.
In his remarks, Mr Tony Attah, the Managing Director of NLNG, said that signing of the agreement was a great moment for the NLNG. He said that with FID on train 7, Nigeria was moving in the right direction., “What we have done today is among the top three things needed before the FID is taken; without this, financiers will not come for train 7.
“We are happy with the commitment of the partners that have signed this agreement today; this agreement will further consolidate our relationship.
“We need to move fast as a country to maintain a strong position in the global space,” he said.
He added that with full implementation of the GSA, this would spur NLNG to build more trains.
“Nigeria at this stage should not be talking only about train 7 but we should be talking about Train 12,” he added.
