Hundreds of engineers are working around the clock at Nigerian Liquefied Gas (NLNG) to produce liquefied natural gas (LNG) at a new plant the size of Lower Manhattan.
The company will require an investment of approximately 12 billion to fund the construction of two processing units, known in the industry as ‘trains’.
NLNG want to boost Bonny Island’s terminal capacity by roughly 40 per cent, meaning an investment of over $10 billion to get to that production capacity. Oil and gas giants: Shell, Total and Eni together own a majority stake in the Bonny Island venture. NLNG is currently the largest LNG producer in the region and only wants to continue its growth.
“Nigeria needs to take the opportunity,” said Maggie Kuang, an analyst with Bloomberg New Energy Finance in Singapore.
“The next few years are critical for investment decisions. If Nigeria does not take any action, it will fall behind,” she stated on the matter.
Last year, the West African nation shipped approximately 46 MMcm of LNG — almost all from Bonny Island — making it the world’s fourth-biggest exporter behind Qatar, Australia and Malaysia, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. This comes at a time with constant competition from other LNG invested countries such as the US, Russia and Mozambique, of which are also ramping up production.
As the arrowhead of Nigeria’s efforts to eliminate gas flaring, NLNG’s operations have helped reduced Nigeria’s Flaring Profile from 65% to below 25%. The company also supplies about 40% of the annual domestic LPG (Cooking Gas) consumption.
“Nigeria has to begin to think about the relevance of oil in the future,” said NLNG Managing Director Tony Attah said in February.
“The energy mix is fast-changing and Nigeria has to come to terms with that. The best bet is for gas,” he announced.
NLNG believes that gas will be ‘integral’ to the global energy needs for ‘economic development for many decades to come’. NLNG has also stated that it is their ‘aim to grow the business and its people to full potential and to be a trusted partner with all stakeholders in the sustainable development of Nigeria’s gas industry and of NLNG’s host communities’.