Page 4 - GLNG Week 38 2022

GLNG COMMENTARY GLNG

Nigeria touts multiple gas

export options

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

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