TheCable

The federal government has called on partners in Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas (NLNG) to allow transportation of third-party gas through its joint pipelines to increase production. 

NLNG is an incorporated joint venture owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) (49%), Shell Gas B.V. (25.6%), Total Enegies Gaz & Electricité​ Holdings (15%), and Eni International N.A. N.V. S.àr.l (10.4%).

Timipre Sylva, minister of state for petroleum resources, made this call when he hosted Stefano De Leo, the new Italian ambassador to Nigeria, on Monday in Abuja.

In a statement issued by Horatius Egua, senior adviser to the minister on media and communications, Sylva said NLNG is presently only able to produce at about 70 percent of installed capacity.

Sylva said if the NLNG partners moderated their rules and allowed third parties to supply gas to the NLNG, the company would be able to provide gas to help ease the European Union’s gas crisis.

“The issue we have with the existing NLNG Trains is that of insufficient gas supply. The partners are running out of gas, and they are refusing the third party to supply gas to the Trains,” he said. 

“The partners are insisting that they can only allow third-party supply gas to the plant only if they agree to supply at subsidised rates.

“These people, of course, want to make money and they cannot supply at subsidised rates and that’s why the NLNG Trains cannot produce at full capacity.

“The partners can afford to supply at subsidised rates because they are partners in the NLNG project, not the third parties.

“This is a very critical issue I want to discuss with the respective partners to see how we can resolve this problem so that we can increase the production capacity of the NLNG.” 

NLNG has six operational trains and is currently working on its Train 7 project.

It is expected to increase the capacity of NLNG’s train plant by 35 percent from the extant 22 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) to 30 mtpa.