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Nigeria LNG already has six operational production trains (Photo: NLNG)
NCDMB touts Project 100 to NLNG
NIGERIA
THE Nigerian Content Development Monitor- ing Board (NCDMB) has asked the four-mem- ber Nigeria LNG (NLNG) consortium to look to participants in its Project 100 programme as it seeks local contractors to assist in the expansion of its seventh production train.
In a statement, NCDMB said that its execu- tive secretary, Sembi Kesiya Wabote, had touted Project 100 in a recent letter to Tony Attah, the managing director of NLNG. In the letter, Wabote included a list of the Nigerian compa- nies that are participating in the programme. The list described the track records of all 100 firms, as well as the range of services offered to support oil and gas operations.
“The areas of competencies of the Project 100 beneficiaries include exploration, subsur- face and seismic services, fabrication and con- struction, FEED, detailed and other engineering services, marine services and operations and inspection, testing and certification,” the state- ment said. “Other key areas of competencies are inspection, hookup and commissioning, mate- rial and procurement, project management and consulting, well drilling services and petroleum technology, as well as maintenance and modifi- cation, among others.”
NCDMB launched the Project 100 pro- gramme in the hope of identifying promising start-up firms in the oil and gas sector. The board has arranged to “support [these compa- nies] through special interventions to facilitate their incubation, maturation and growth into world-class service companies,” according to the statement.
As of press time, no word was available on NLNG’s response. Wabote said that his agency was in touch with multiple investors and would continue to make regular recommendations of Project 100 participants to other parties.
Existing commitments
NLNG has indicated before that it wants to max- imise the use of local content in the construction
of Train 7, a new production facility. Speaking at an industry conference in Abuja in Febru- ary, Attah noted that Nigeria’s government had already approved its plans for the Train 7 project.
“Riding on the back of a robust Nigerian content plan endorsed by the Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board, 55% of the engineering activities for Train 7 will be carried out in-country, and 55% of all procurement for execution of the project will be undertaken by Nigerian vendors,” he said.
The NLNG head also stated that fully 100% of all installation and construction work would be carried out in Nigeria. The project will benefit the country’s economy in many ways, including “the creation of jobs for our teeming youths, netting up to 12,000 direct jobs [during] the construction phase, as well as the associated skills acquisition through a deliberate effort at technology transfer,” he stated.
NLNG’s largest shareholder is state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC), which owns a stake of 49%. The remaining 51% of equity in the consortium is divided between Royal Dutch Shell (UK/Netherlands, 25.6%), Total (France, 15%) and Eni (Italy, 10.4%).
The four-member consortium began pro- ducing LNG in 1999 and already has six produc- tion trains in place at its gas liquefaction plant on Bonny Island. These trains have a combined capacity of 22.5mn tonnes per year (tpy). The addition of Train 7 will increase the total by 7.2mn tpy to 30mn tpy, with the new produc- tion facility adding 4.2mn tpy and the debottle- necking of existing trains contributing another 3.4mn tpy.
Mele Kyari, NNPC’s group managing direc- tor, declared in late 2019 that NLNG would con- tinue to expand after the completion of Train 7. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the consortium to build another five production trains, bringing the total number up to 12, he said. ™
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