Page 9 - AfrOil Week 44 2021

AfrOil PERFORMANCE AfrOil

NLNG aims to cut LPG exports

NIGERIA THE Nigeria LNG (NLNG) consortium has November 2 that the country needed to spend
said it will reduce exports in order to raise the about $2.7bn on natural gas and LPG distribu-
volume of LPG delivered to the domestic mar- tion infrastructure projects.
ket to 450,000 tonnes per year (tpy), in line with NNPC is in the process of being replaced by a
previously announced plans. new state-controlled entity – Nigerian National
According to Philip Mshelbila, NLNG’s man- Petroleum Co. Ltd (NNPC Ltd), an incorporated
aging director, the consortium is cutting exports firm with no direct access to government fund-
in light of Abuja’s efforts to promote domestic ing. Presumably NNPC Ltd will inherit NNPC’s
gas consumption. “As part of the measures to 49% stake in NLNG. The remaining equity will
support the federal government’s efforts to continue to be split between Royal Dutch Shell
deepen domestic gas supply and economic (UK/Netherlands), with 25.6%; TotalEnergies
growth, Nigeria LNG is reducing LPG exports (France), with 15%, and Eni (Italy), with 10.4%.
and increasing supplies to [the] domestic mar- Together, the partners operate a gas lique-
ket,” he said at an industry conference in Lagos faction plant on Bonny Island. The facility has
on November 2, according to S&P Global Platts. been operating since 1999, and it has six pro-
“NLNG is now increasing supply to domestic duction trains capable of turning out a total of
market to 450,000 tonnes per annum.” 22.5 mn tpy. Its capacity is set to rise to 30mn
Mshelbila did not say when the group hoped tpy as a result of the Train 7 project, which envi-
to push deliveries up to 450,000 tpy. Earlier this sions the construction of a seventh production
year, though, his predecessor Tony Attah noted train that can produce 4.2mn tpy, as well as the
that NLNG had turned out 370,000 tonnes of debottlenecking of existing trains, which will
LPG in 2020 and aimed to raise the figure to add another 3.4mn tpy of capacity. ™
450,000 tonnes in 2022.
Until recently, the consortium supplied only
about 250,000 tpy of LPG to Nigerian consum-
ers and exported the remainder of its output to
Western markets. However, demand for LPG
has been rising in the West African country, and
officials in Abuja expect it to climb from the cur-
rent level of about 1mn tpy to 3mn tpy by 2026.
NLNG has already taken some steps to
address this shift in demand. For example, it has
expanded its roster of off-takers to include 43
companies, up from just six in 2007. But it may
have to do more: according to Mele Kyari, the
group managing director of state-owned Nige-
rian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC), said on Rendering of NLNG’s seventh production train (Image: KBR)

POLICY
Former Sonangol director says local

content initiatives are having little effect

ANGOLA ANGOLA’S government has made a number & Gas and Renewables conference in Luanda
of efforts to increase local content in oil and gas last week that he saw the NOC itself as the big-
projects involving international oil companies gest obstacle to increasing local content in oil
(IOCs), but its approach has had only limited and gas projects.
effects, according to a former director of the “The area of local content is very weak in
national oil company (NOC) Sonangol. the country precisely because it was blocked
Arnaldo Lago de Carvalho, a businessman by Sonangol,” he was quoted as saying by Ver
who previously served on Sonangol’s board of Angola. “The biggest enemy of local content has
directors, said on the sidelines of the Luanda Oil been Sonangol during all these years.”

Week 44 03•November•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P9