Page 11 - DMEA Week 43 2022

DMEA REFINING & FUELS DMEA

NLNG said the floods had not affected its assets on Bonny Island (Photo: KBR)
This move led some of the group’s customers – LPG to Nigeria’s domestic market. (The consor-
including Portugal’s Galp, which imports much tium is a key supplier of LPG, or cooking gas, to
of its LNG from Nigeria – to prepare for the pos- local consumers.)
sibility of supply disruptions. It added that it would “continue to monitor
It also led some media outlets to speculate the situation with upstream gas suppliers” and
that the consortium had shut down all oper- was “evaluating the impact of the flood on its
ations at its gas liquefaction plant on Bonny business.” It did not say when it expected to left
Island. NLNG said on October 21, though, the declaration of force majeure.
that while it had halted loading and export of NLNG has been in production for more than
LNG cargoes, the LNG plant itself was still in 20 years and is Nigeria’s sole exporter of LNG.
operation. Equity in the consortium is split between Nige-
“To correct some misinformation on the dec- rian National Petroleum Co. Ltd (NNPCL),
laration, we would like to clarify: 1. The com- with 49%; Shell (UK), with 25.6%; TotalEnergies
pany’s plant is in operation, though at a limited (France), with 15%; and Eni (Italy), with 10.4%.
capacity due to reduced gas supply from some State-owned NNPCL serves as operator of the
of its upstream gas suppliers. 2. None of NLNG’s group.
assets on Bonny Island or in any of its host com- The consortium brought its first production
munities are impacted by the flood. The force train on stream in 1999 and now has six pro-
majeure is as a consequence of a similar notice duction trains capable of turning out a total of
by upstream gas suppliers due to the impact of 22.5mn tonnes per year. The complex’s installed
flood in their production facilities. 3. NLNG is capacity is set to rise to 30mn tpy as a result of
working with all critical stakeholders on miti- the Train 7 project, which calls for building
gating the impact on product deliveries,” it said a seventh production train that can turn out
in a statement posted on social media sites. 4.2mn tpy, as well as the debottlenecking of
Additionally, NLNG said that the declaration existing trains, which will add another 3.4mn
of force majeure had not affected deliveries of tpy of capacity. ™

Botswana seeks partners for

$2.5bn coal-to-liquid plant

AFRICA BOTSWANA is looking to find funding part- dependence on costly petroleum product
ners for a $2.5bn plant to produce synthetic fuels imports, Bloomberg reports. That would fol-
from coal, a plan rekindled by the energy crisis low the example of neighbouring South Africa,
playing out in Europe, according to Minerals which developed coal-to-liquids (CTL) technol-
and Energy Minister Lefoko Moagi. ogy through Sasol.
The southern African nation has for nearly Botswana’s efforts to realise the project have
a decade discussed tapping its extensive coal accelerated since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,
resources to produce fuels in order to reduce the news agency writes.

Week 43 27•October•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P11