More details emerged weekend on why the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Friday last week, consummated a $2.5 billion pre-payment agreement with the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) for upstream gas development projects to supply gas to Trains 1 to 6 of the plant.
Giving insights to the deal at the signing ceremony in Abuja, the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mele Kyari said the target of the new contract is to take full advantage of the huge opportunities in the global LNG market.
He also noted that 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.
Accordingly, he advised shareholders to expedite work and expand production capacity beyond Train 7 so as to internalize the imports of multibillion dollar scheme for the economy.
Kyari told the shareholders that “Here at NNPC, we are thinking beyond Train 7. If your ambition is Train 7, then you have to work hard to change that.”
Explaining on the real imports of the new contract, Managing Director of NLNG, Tony Attah, said the gas supply pre-payment agreement was a significant step towards ensuring the company’s business sustainability and competitiveness and instantly called for action to ensure the Final Investment Decision on the Train 7 Project is taken this year without fail.
He noted that the agreement was significant as it would help in resolving the issues around gas supplies to Trains 1 to 6 of the plant, adding that there was a need to fast-track action on the process to bring more trains on stream.
Attah averred that despite being a huge success story as a company, the NLNG must go beyond its current achievements and initiate other viable projects capable of generating better returns on investment.
He said the partners should be concerned on what other projects they can quickly deliver to take advantage of the enormous gas potential in the country and argued that there was a need for the partners to take advantage of what is happening in the global market and do things very differently.
Business Hilights gathered that the agreement will protect the federation’s investment in the NLNG; ensure full capacity utilisation, consisting 22 metric tons per annum (MTPA) of LNG and 5 MTPA of NGLs of Trains 1-6 plants; generate employment, and provide new vistas of growth opportunities in the nation’s LNG sector and federal revenue.
