Good news as NLNG gets guarantees for off takers, GFS supply on $7b Train 7
Fresh success story has emerged on the planned $7 billion Train 7 project as the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG) has effectively secured guarantees for gas feed supply (GFS) and off takers.
Business Hilights recalls that ahead of build-up to Final Investment Decision (FID) in 2018, NLNG sought $7 billion from the global financial markets for the sustainability of its operations and expansion project which will increase its production capacity from 22 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) to 30 MTPA.
This was revealed by the Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Tony Attah, in a chat with reporters on the sidelines of the on-going Gastech conference and exhibition in Barcelona, Spain.
He added that “In terms of volume off-takers for Train 7, we are not struggling because we have guaranteed market for it,” stressing that while the Sales Purchase Agreements (SPAs) are still valid, they may not hesitate to take a second look at it if need be without necessarily changing the off-takers.
According to him, NLNG has made progress on guaranteeing gas supply for the upcoming Train 7 with companies including; Shell, Total and Eni committing to ensuring steady supply of gas feedstock for the project.
Attah averred that “All the volumes anticipated for Train 7 would be coming from our shareholders gas suppliers. We are analysing data books on how much gas would be needed and to know where all the supplies will be coming from. In the next couple of weeks, we will sign off that agreement.
Continuing, NLNG boss noted that Train 7, an 8 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) capacity project, has made a lot of progress towards securing the final investment decision (FID), but cannot give the specific date when the milestone will be attained.
“The FID cannot be taken until the completion of the dual front end engineering design (FEED) which was awarded in July this year to a consortium of B7 JV consortium and SCD JV consortium.
While describing NLNG’s Train 7 as a jumbo project coming as a two-train project combined as one with readymade sales purchase agreements (SPAs) in place, Attah noted that there is more clarity on the funding strategy to be deployed for the project which will be a mixed financing model.
Besides, the model is laced with multiple inflows which are not expecting the entire $7 billion required for the project to come from one source.
Attah, who revealed that financial advisers have been appointed with GT Bank emerging as the local bank and SNBC, said the re-marketing of existing Trains 1 – 3 whose long term contracts will expire around 2021 have received tremendous progress and the market has been positive and responsive to the re-marketing effort.
