The Managing Director of Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited, Philip Mshelbila, has stated that Train-7 is 52% complete.
According to The Times, he made this statement during a recent engagement meeting with Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board Executive Secretary Simbi Wabote.
He claimed that 8,300 Nigerians with a range of skill levels are employed by the $5 billion Train-7 project, which is currently at 52% completion.
He said, “Developing Nigerians’ capacities is essential to having a better Nigeria. NLNG’s vision is to become a globally competitive LNG company while contributing to the development of a better Nigeria. We appreciate that you acknowledge the operator’s position, the regulator’s role, and the necessity of consistent interaction.”
Dr. Mshelbila raised concern about the Train-7 project’s likely completion without accessible feed gas for its operation.
He emphasized that although significant progress has been made in building the Train-7 facility, multinational oil and gas companies have not yet initiated the deepwater gas projects needed to supply feed gas for Train-7 and future expansions.
Because of this problem, the Train-7 project might be completed yet not have the gas needed to run.
He went on to discuss the difficulties the company had securing a steady supply of gas, which caused its six plants to operate at less than 50% of their full potential and underproduce.
In order to improve the efficiency of Trains 1-6, the Nigeria LNG Board of Directors has approved the purchase of gas from both domestic and foreign producers.
He underlined that NLNG’s feed gas supply is mostly dependent on joint venture partners including Total Energies, Nigerian Agip Oil Company , and Shell Petroleum Development Company Limited.
When Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources visited NLNG at Bonny in October 2023, Dr. Mshelbila informed him that the company’s biggest danger to both present operations and future growth ambitions was the supply of feed gas.
When Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas) visited NLNG at Bonny in October 2023, Dr. Mshelbila informed him that the company’s biggest danger to both present operations and future growth ambitions is the supply of feed gas.
According to him, the ongoing problems with the gas supply are causing Trains 1 through 6 to run at about 50% of their potential capacity.
The reason for this predicament is that the supply of associated gas is affected by crude oil theft, which results in underutilization of the plants not from a lack of capacity but rather from insufficient availability of feed gas.
In addition, he said that although the corporation wants to build Train 8, its development is hampered by the lack of a certain gas supply.
He stated that although the conditions for acquiring the necessary gas must be handled, the company believes that it can only be obtained from deepwater sources.
To elaborate, he added that NLNG’s attempts to obtain the required gas supply are made more difficult by the fact that the production-sharing contracts that now regulate deep-water exploration do not provide producers with conditions that are economically feasible.
