Page 4 - DMEA Week 37 2022

DMEA DMEA

Nigeria touts multiple

gas export options

Officials in Abuja are talking up plans to export gas via pipelines to Morocco and Algeria

and in the form of LNG – and pledging to send more gas to Europe in the coming winter

SEVERAL West African states have joined with of 2021 amidst diplomatic and political disputes
Morocco in taking a step towards enabling the between Algiers and Rabat, and GME is now
WHAT: construction of the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipe- used mostly in the reverse direction, to facili-
Nigeria has signed MoUs line (NMGP), a natural gas transportation net- tate deliveries of regasified LNG from Spain to
on a major pipeline work capable of handling around 3bn cubic feet Morocco.)
project with Morocco, (85mn cubic metres) per day, or 31 bcm per year. Presumably Nigeria will be providing the
Senegal, Mauritania and NMGP would follow a 7,000-km route largest portion of the gas flowing through
ECOWAS. through the offshore zones of more than a dozen NMGP. Its proven gas reserves are Africa’s larg-
West and North African countries – Nigeria, est at 206.53 trillion cubic feet (5.849 trillion
WHY: Benin, Togo, Ghana, Côte d’ Ivoire, Liberia, cubic metres), and government officials believe
NMGP is one of several Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Gam- the number could rise to 600 tcf (17 tcm) as
initiatives that aim to bia, Senegal, Mauritania, Western Sahara and exploration of deepwater fields and frontier
boost Nigeria’s ability Morocco. basins moves forward.
to export more gas,
particularly to European On September 15, representatives of the Senegal, by comparison, has 120 tcf (3.4
markets. parties involved signed multiple memoranda of tcm) in proven reserves, while Mauritania has
understanding (MoUs) on the project. One was estimated its own reserves, which have yet to
WHAT NEXT: signed between Nigerian National Petroleum be thoroughly explored, at 100 tcf (2.83 tcm) or
Both of the major pipeline Co. Ltd (NNPCL), Morocco’s Office National more.
projects under consid- des Hydrocarbures et des Mines (ONHYM) But NGMP is not Nigeria’s only large-scale
eration face challenges, and a regional organisation known as the commitment. The country is also looking to
while NLNG’s expansion Economic Community of West African States expand the volume of gas it exports in the form
project is still in progress (ECOWAS). A second was signed between of LNG and wants to build another high-capac-
and plans to boost pro- NNPCL, ONHYM and Petrosen, the national ity pipeline to Europe via Niger and Algeria.
duction remain vague. oil company (NOC) of Senegal, and a third was
signed between NNPCL, ONHYM and Societe TSGP and Train 7
Mauritanienne des Hydrocarbures (SMH), the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Timi-
NOC of Mauritania. pre Sylva mentioned both initiatives on Sep-
Mele Kyari, the group CEO, said at the sign- tember 7 during the Gastech 2022 conference
ing ceremony that NMGP would help reduce in Milan.
energy poverty in Africa by increasing the With respect to NLNG, Sylva declared that
amount of gas available for local consumption. Nigeria would be in a position to supply more
The project will also give a boost to West African LNG to Europe by next winter. He did not say
economies through “the creation of wealth and exactly how much more LNG would be arriving,
improvement in the standard of living, integra- whether the extra gas could be expected before
tion of the economies within the region, miti- the end of the year or in the first quarter of 2023,
gation against desertification and other benefits or how the increase would be accomplished.
that will accrue as a result of reduction in carbon However, he did state that the country planned
emission,” he said. to ramp gas production up by more than 50%
from the current level of 8 bcf (226.6 mcm) per
Eyes on the European market day to 12.2 bcf (345.5 mcm) per day.
Despite these local benefits, though, NMGP’s Presumably, most (or even all) of these addi-
primary purpose is serving the European gas tional volumes are meant to be sent to Europe
market, where demand is higher and buyers are by Nigeria LNG (NLNG), the operator of a gas
willing to pay more. liquefaction plant on Bonny Island. NLNG is
NMGP’s backers will accomplish this goal currently Nigeria’s only producer of LNG, and
by linking the pipeline to the Moroccan section it is currently engaged in the Train 7 project, an
of the Gaz-Maghreb Europe (GME) pipeline, effort to build a seventh production train and
which was originally built to pump gas from debottleneck its six existing trains in order to
Algeria’s Hassi R’Mel field to Spain. (Algerian boost output from 22mn tonnes per year to
gas flows began declining sharply in the autumn 30mn tpy.

P4 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 37 15•September•2022