Page 12 - GLNGl Week 24

GLNG AFRICA GLNG

Nigeria’s NNPC to

build 200,000 bpd

condensate refinery

PROJECTS & NIGERIAN National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC)
COMPANIES plans to build a new 200,000 barrel per day (bpd)
condensate refinery, to maximise value from
Nigeria’s reserves and help the country curb its
fuel imports, the group’s managing director Mele
Kyari said on June 12.
The plant’s output will complement pro-
duction at the 650,000 bpd Dangote refinery,
due to start up next year, Kyari said in a virtual
conference.
Even though it is Africa’s biggest oil producer,
Nigeria is heavily reliant on fuel imports because
its main refineries operated by NNPC have fallen
into disrepair. Most domestic fuel output derives
from illegal refineries in the Niger Delta region
that process oil siphoned from pipelines.
“I know it is a difficult thing to explain why
an oil-producing country would become a net working on our petroleum legislation to make In the past it has been
importer of petroleum products,” Kyare said. sure that before the end of this year, we have suggested that Bonny
“The reason is very simple: we couldn’t fix our the petroleum legislation in place in such a way LNG could host as
refineries and that is also very difficult to explain; that there is visibility around what investors can many as 12 trains.
we started this many years ago. For 20 years, all expect,” he said.
attempts to get the refineries fixed failed for
many reasons.” On gas
NNPC’s plan now is to attract partners to NNPC is a partner in Nigeria LNG (NLNG), the
finance the repair and upgrade of the refineries. international consortium also comprising Italy’s
“We are fixing our refineries, we don’t have all Eni, France’s Total and Royal Dutch Shell that
the cash to put there but [what] we are going to exports Nigerian gas in liquid form.
do is to get a partnership with others to put their The group recently awarded a $4bn engi-
money as investors and they’ll get their money neering, procurement and construction (EPC)
out of the refinery,” Kyare said. contract to add a seventh train at Nigeria’s Bonny
A final investment decision (FID) on the first LNG terminal. Together with the debottleneck-
NLNG head Tony 50,000 bpd train of the condensate refinery will ing of existing trains, the new unit will boost
Attah lamented be taken before the end of July, he estimated, NLNG’s liquefaction capacity to over 30mn
that it had taken with overall construction taking three years. tonnes per year (tpy).
“The implication of this is that within three
In a separate virtual conference, NLNG head
15 years for years, this country would be sufficient in the sup- Tony Attah lamented that it had taken 15 years
ply of finished petroleum products, [and] after for Nigeria to commit to developing another
Nigeria to commit that, we’ll be looking for markets. We know that train. In this time Nigeria’s share of the global
we can deliver on this,” he said.
LNG market has fallen from 10% to under 7%.
to developing Kyari noted that Nigeria was due to pass “If you blink you are left behind,” he said.
another train. a new petroleum bill by the end of 2020, pro- In the past it has been suggested that Bonny
viding better conditions for investing in the LNG could host as many as 12 trains. Attah
country’s oil and gas reserves. Nigerian Presi- called for Nigeria to pick up the pace in develop-
dent Muhammadu Buhari and both legislative ing its gas resources.
chambers want to see this happen, he said. The “The Nigerian story is not complete without
bill had been expected to become law by the end gas,” he said. “Gas is a major resource. We don’t
of July, but the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis want fossil fuels to have disappeared in 50 years’
caused delays. time and we didn’t use the resources we had
The NNPC head added that a licensing when we could.”
round would take place in 2021 to attract more The CEO said that no delays to the seventh
upstream investors. train’s construction were currently envisaged as
“I know for sure that there would be a licens- a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The train
ing round that will come next year. We are is due to start production in 2025.™

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 24 19•June•2020