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DMEA SUPPLY & PROCESSING DMEA

Lagos, Malabo sign MoU on

stranded gas processing

AFRICA THE governments of Nigeria and Equatorial related infrastructure, he said. Additionally, he
Guinea have signed a memorandum of under- stated, the country has investment funds availa-
standing (MoU) that provides for natural and ble for development projects.
associated gas from stranded fields in the for- Sylva further noted that the collaboration
mer country’s offshore zone to be processed at with Equatorial Guinea was in line with the
the Punta Europa gas hub in the latter country. Nigerian government’s “Decade of Gas” initia-
According to press reports, high-ranking offi- tive, which calls for extensive gasification of the
cials from the two sides signed the document on country’s industrial and economic operations.
March 1 during the Nigeria International Energy Additionally, he said, the joint project will help
Summit (NIES), an ongoing event in Abuja. Nigeria expand its share of the world gas market.
They also stated that the MoU would provide for “The execution of this MoU meets one of the
gas from Nigeria’s stranded fields – that is, iso- imperatives of the ‘Decade of Gas’ in Nigeria,”
lated deepwater sites in the Gulf of Guinea that he remarked.
cannot be connected easily to existing transport “Whilst we are focused on the domestic gas
infrastructure – to be delivered to Punta Europa’s agenda, we are keeping an eye on the global gas
gas-processing and LNG plants on Bioko Island. market as well.”
The officials indicated that the Nigerian gas Equatorial Guinea’s Minister of Mines and
would be transported to the gas hub by subsea Hydrocarbons Gabriel Nguema Obiang Lima
pipeline. also hailed the signing of the document, calling
However, they did not say how much gas it a positive example of co-operation between
might be involved in such an arrangement or say two countries within the global South. “This
which fields might be served by the pipeline. Nor strategic collaboration breaks down geograph-
did they speculate as to when the parties might ical boundaries and allows delivery of gas from
sign a binding agreement on the matter. Nigeria to Equatorial Guinea’s Punta Europa
For his part, Nigeria’s Minister of State for facilities, extending their life and providing
Petroleum Resources Timipre Sylva, who access to the regional and global energy mar-
signed the MoU on Abuja’s behalf, declared that kets,” he remarked.
the document would help his country monetise He also said that the MoU demonstrated that
stranded gas assets within two years. gas-producing states were willing to take creative
“Nigeria has huge gas resources, a significant and flexible approaches in order to bring their
amount of which is offshore, and will require resources to market under changing conditions.
unprecedented investment in infrastructure to “As the global geopolitics of natural gas evolves
bring them to market,” he stated, according to and within the context of the world transition-
a government press release. “This collaboration ing to a lower carbon footprint, it is imperative
allows much of that stranded gas to access the that we think differently on how to remain an
global gas market within 18 to 24 months, in important player in energy markets. New, fast
what will be the fastest timeline to market for a and competitive sources will be a major deter-
Nigerian offshore gas asset.” minant of success ... [Nigerian National Petro-
Equatorial Guinea is uniquely capable of exe- leum Corp. (NNPC)] and its JV partners get a
cuting this project quickly, he added, because it unique opportunity to monetise gas that would
already possesses a strong portfolio of world- have otherwise been stranded offshore due to
class LNG and gas-processing plants, as well as absence of infrastructure,” he said.™

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