Page 12 - DMEA Week 05 2021

DMEA PETROCHEMICALS DMEA

Nigeria signs off on $3bn

methanol project

NIGERIA NIGERIAN national oil company (NOC) Petrochemical Co (BFPCL).
NNPC and its partners have taken a final invest- On its website, BFPCL says the project com-
Nigeria wants to build ment decision (FID) on the country’s first meth- prises upstream development as well as pipe-
out its petrochemicals anol production plant. lines and a gas processing plant. It will involve
sector to monetise more The project, with a $3bn price tag, will con- two development phases and aims to produce
of its gas resources. sume around 14 trillion cubic feet (400bn cubic 1.7mn tonnes per year of methanol and 1.3mn
metres) of unexploited gas reserves found at tpy of urea by 2025.
oilfields in the Niger Delta Brass area. The plant Nigeria wants to expand the role of gas in
itself will be built on Brass Island in Bayelsa other areas, including power and heat genera-
State. tion, vehicle transport and household cooking.
Nigeria is on a push to expand development The government declared 2020 the “Year of Gas”,
of its gas resources, estimated at some 5.3 trillion but progress has stumbled because of the corona-
cubic metres proven in size. It wants to build out virus (COVID-19) pandemic.
its petrochemicals sector to help achieve this Nigeria cleared one key milestone in July,
goal. though when it broke ground on the 614-km
“Today’s significant milestone of achieving Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano gas pipeline. The pro-
an FID symbolises the full support of the federal ject will carry 36.2 bcm per year of gas, some
government for the construction and operation of which will be used at new domestic thermal
of the first methanol plant in Nigeria,” NNPC power plants (TPPs).
tweeted on January 29. It will attract $3bn in for- Methanol is used to produce many other
eign direct investment (FDI) and create 30,000 chemicals and solvents. Among its main uses is
jobs during its construction and a further 5,000 manufacturing formaldehyde, used in plastics,
during its operation. paints, textiles, pigments and dyes. It is also used
“The project will have significant economic to create acetic acid, methyl tertiary-butyl ether,
and development impact on the country, includ- biodiesel and olefins. Ammonia is mostly used
ing revenue generation and import substitution in fertilisers.
for the methanol needs of the country that is cur- The Brass project will use gas supplied by
rently 100% imported,” he said. Royal Dutch Shell. It will rely on technology
NNPC is partnered in the project with the provided by Denmark’s Haldor Topsoe to make
Nigerian Local Content Management Board the methanol, which will be sold to BP under a
and engineering group DSV Engineering. Their 10-year contract. Ammonia will be marketed
operating joint venture is Brass Fertiliser & through US trader Trammo. ™

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 05 04•February•2021