Federal government has given the green light to investment partners in the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited to press ahead with expansion programme towards a 12 train liquefaction complex as initially conceived.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, who gave the charge at the company’s operations base in Bonny, Rivers State, tasked the management of drive capacity growth programme from current 222 million tons per annum (mtpa) to 40 mtpa in the next 30 years.
Kachikwu, who led a delegation of regulators and ministry of officials to the company’s liquefaction complex in Bonny Island said government would support rapid expansion of the company’s processing capacity.
The minister challenged the company to push its expansion programme beyond Train-7 in order to catch up with competing LNG sources in the global market where the fight for market share has become intense.
He said enhanced capacity at the liquefaction company would also translate to larger volumes of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) supply in the domestic market to meet commercial and household fuel demand in line with the company’s vision to help build a better Nigeria.
According to the minister, the construction of new processing plants will lift the country’s LNG output by 35 percent from 22 million tonnes per annum to 30 mtpa.
ALSO READ: Fresh gang-up as ADP takes off in Oyo
Dr. Kachikwu who inspected the six-train plant complex and the site for planned Train 7, said “Train 7 doesn’t have a good history in terms of operations. President Muhammadu Buhari will tell you when they started this project, they targeted 12 trains.”
“Through no fault of yours, Train 12 hasn’t happened, but Train 7 is coming. Now, you have Train 7 largely ready to go. What excites me is that this Train will be bigger than the other individual trains but in your 30 years outlook, you have to begin to look at Train 8. We need to catch up.
“The transition to cleaner energy is going to happen faster than you think. As we reconstruct our refineries, we are going to be looking at how to make them more green friendly, but every indicator of our studies shows that the fastest move we are going to make to green energy is on gas.
“Although your market today is focussed on externalisation, you will soon see government policies drive you towards internalisation very rapidly. So you need to grow those volumes for the teeming population we have. I challenge you to look at this and grow from the 30 MTPA you are talking of now to about 40 MTPA over the next 30 years,” he charged.