By Bimbo Ogunnaike
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has signed 2.5 billion dollar pre-payment agreement with the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG).
The agreement was for Upstream gas development projects to supply gas to NLNG Trains 1 – 6.
The Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mele Kyari, made the disclosure during the signing ceremony in Abuja on Friday.
Kyari said the pre-payment gas supply agreement was a milestone which aligned with the Federal Government’s aspirations of monetising the nation’s enormous gas resources.
He said the agreement would also help in protecting the Federation’s investment in the NLNG, ensuring full capacity utilization (22mtpa LNG and 5mtpa NGLs) of Trains 1-6 plants, generating employment, and providing new vistas of growth opportunities in the nation’s LNG sector.
According to a statement signed by the Acting Spokesman for the Corporation, Samson Makoji ,said the GMD noted that the agreement would help to resolve the issues around gas supply to Trains 1 – 6, adding that there was need to fast-track action on the process of bringing more trains on stream.
Kyari challenged shareholders of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) to work towards expanding the production capacity of the company beyond Train 7.
He noted that though NLNG had been a huge success as a company, it must go beyond its current achievements and initiate other viable projects capable of generating better return on investment.
Earlier in his address, the Managing Director of NLNG, Tony Attah, noted that the signing of the gas supply pre-payment agreement was a significant step towards ensuring the company’s business sustainability and competitiveness.
Attah called for support to ensure that the Final Investment Decision on the Train 7 Project would be taken in 2019 without failure.
The signing of the gas supply pre-payment agreement was witnessed by the Country Chairman of Shell Companies in Nigeria, Osagie Okunbor, and representatives of Total, Eni/NAOC, among others.
