Nigeria Petroleum and Gas News

The Final Investment Decision (FID) will determine the financing arrangement for the project. In effect, the amount to be contributed by the joint venture partners as well as the sourcing of the balance of the investment outlay through banks.

The development comes as Redsquare Africa Limited, a leading indigenous oil and gas consulting firm, has received the nod of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to promote this year’s oil bloc bid round.

In far away Houston, Minister Energy Edmund Daukoru assured the international investment community that the oil blocs licensing round would be fair, transparent and competitive in conformity with Nigeria’s commitment to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).

The NLNG train seven, which would be the largest in the country has had its contract for Front–End-Engineering and Design (FEED) of a two 8.5-million metric tons per annum of LNG awarded to KBR and partners. The KBR is a global engineering, construction and services company supporting the energy, petrochemicals, government services and civil infrastructure sectors.

The project is part of the Federal Government gas utilisation programme from which it is expecting about N1.3-trillion as revenue by the year.

The train seven is part of the large scale LNG projects that will eventually terminate in eight trains. The first six trains have so far cost about N1.55-trillion ($12-billion).

The project stakeholders including Shell, Nigeria Agip Oil Company, EIF, and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), representing the Federal Government have earned N588.8-billion ($4.6-billion) as revenue from the project.

The NLNG has a long-term contract to supply LNG to Lake Charles Terminal as well as other terminals in the United States of America and Europe, establishing NLNG’s position as the foremost player in the Atlantic market.

The NLNG will be shipping over 14-million metric tons of per annum of LNG to Europe and over 8-million metric tons per annum of LNG the United States markets after train six comes on stream this year. The project is to be constructed at Bonny Island, Nigeria. NLNG Limited is a company registered in Nigeria, whose shareholders are the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Shell, Total and ENI.

The award of the FEED is part of a dual-FEED preparation activity being undertaking in parallel by KBR and its partners along with another consortium.

The project specifications and FEED packages for the NLNG SevenPlus Project include the design of two 8.5-million metric tons per annum LNG trains and related site utilities. The shareholders are to execute only one train in the current plan, with a decision on the second train deferred for a future date. Upon completion, the NLNG train seven will be the largest LNG train in the world.

The joint venture has been successfully executing the Nigeria LNG Projects since its inception, and the award of the FEED contract follows on this success. KBR and its joint venture partners are performing the FEED work from their offices in the UK and in the National Engineering and Technical.

Daukoru told industry operators and investors in Houston yesterday that the exercise would be fair, transparent and competitive in conformity with Nigeria’s commitment to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).

"We are determined to ensure that Nigeria benefits from the best available state of the art technology and expertise in petroleum and gas acreage development and production."

Daukoru assured investors not to worry about continuity since the ruling party; the PDP had already been re-elected to form the next government. According to him, 45 oil blocs will be on offer and that the exercise will be carried out electronically and bidders will know the results instantly.

In a letter to Redsquare Africa, which was made available to Business Day, the director of DPR, Tony Chukwueke, noted that the company’s involvement would prop up the Nigeria content policy in the 2007 bid round.