Page 4 - GLNG 32

GLNG COMMENTARY GLNG
European official says Nigerian LNG exports to Europe could double in long term
COMMMENTARY
MATTHEW Baldwin, the European Commis- sion’s deputy director-general for energy, has said he believes Nigeria has the potential to see natural gas exports to Europe more than double in the long term.
In an interview with Premium Times last week, Baldwin noted that Nigeria accounted for 14% of the LNG now being delivered to the European Union. The West African country has enough gas to push that figure up to more than 30% in the long run, he said, while also stressing that he did not have the authority to make any supply commitments.
“I do not want to put a number on that ... partly because I am not the negotiator for the gas contracts. That is for the companies to look at ... but companies are interested in bringing more LNG from Nigeria, and if you look at the total potential LNG reserves in Nigeria, it could go all the way from 14% to something in the 30s. So this is a huge potential that we see here in Nigeria as a partner,” he told Premium Times.
Baldwin also serves as head of the EC’s Energy Platform Task Force (EPTF), which was established earlier this year to support efforts to reduce the bloc’s dependence on Russian oil and gas supplies. He spoke with the newspaper dur- ing a fact-finding mission in Nigeria, noting that the West African country was the first place he had visited as head of EPTF.
In the interview, he responded to a question about why the EU was seeking to buy Nigerian gas even as it proclaimed its determination to reduce fossil fuel consumption by saying that gas was certain to be an important part of the energy transition in both Europe and Nigeria.
“[We] are very supportive of what Nigeria is doing with regards to its energy transition plan – the major commitment that you have taken to deliver and be climate-neutral by 2060. We are looking to be the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, and then you are not far behind,” he
said. “We are committed to supporting you in those efforts.”
He continued: “I think for both of us, gas is going to be an important transition fuel [and] one of your major exports and commodities, and we want to be major customers of Nigerian gas. And here is the explanation to the dichotomy: We need more gas from Nigeria as a result of the terrible war of aggression Russia has mounted on Ukraine. We can no longer count on gas com- ing from the Russian Federation, and we want to build a new partnership with countries like Nigeria with whom we have an already well-es- tablished partnership to obtain more gas and LNG from you on good commercial terms. So that is the reason. There is no dichotomy and we are determined to support your efforts to move into renewables, to use energy more efficiently, to reduce your use of energy. We are doing that ourselves. We have a major gas reduction plan. But again, we will need more gas coming from Nigeria to replace the [Russian gas] we are taking out of the system.”
Nigeria delivers gas to Europe in the form of LNG produced by the Nigeria LNG (NLNG) consortium. The consortium includes several European companies – Shell (UK), with 25.6%; TotalEnergies (France), with 15%; and Eni (Italy), with 10.4% – while the remaining equity is held by Nigerian National Petroleum Co. Ltd (NNPC Ltd), the operator, with 49%.
The partners have been operating a gas liq- uefaction plant on Bonny Island since 1999. The facility now has six production trains capable of turning out a total of 22.5mn tonnes per year (tpy) of LNG. Its installed capacity is set to rise to 30mn tpy as a result of the Train 7 project, which calls for construction of a seventh production train that can turn out 4.2mn tpy, as well as the debottlenecking of existing trains, which will add another 3.4mn tpy of capacity.™
P4
w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 32 12•August•2022