TheCable

Riverside LNG, a Nigerian-based firm, says it is in talks to supply gas to South Africa, marking the first such deal between both countries.

David Ige, Riverside’s chief executive officer (CEO), made this known in a Bloomberg report on Wednesday.

He said the company hopes to secure the gas supply deal early next year.

On November 21, the company signed a gas-export partnership agreement with Johannes Schuetze Energy Import AG of Germany. 

Ige, a former executive at the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, said the company is currently searching the continent for deals.

“We’d probably very early in the year close out another segment of the market, an off-take for South Africa,” he said.

“There’s a massively evolving gas market in the region, anything around 3,000 nautical miles of Nigeria. So that covers southern Africa, western Africa, all to northwest Europe and to the Caribbean and South America broadly.”

Citing confidentiality constraints, Ige declined to provide further details on the discussions with South African counterparts. 

According to Ige, Riverside is also exploring opportunities in Liberia and Cameroon.

The report said deliveries from the project would not start until 2027 because South Africa currently does not have a facility to receive liquefied natural gas.

He said South Africa has enough time for import terminal infrastructure.

Ige also said there is a huge opportunity for Nigeria to be a trading hub, as many countries are planning to turn to gas.