Nigeria LNG celebrated its first production of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) from its third train today, three months ahead of contract schedule.
Train 3's first LNG cargo is planned to be loaded in December for shipment to Gas Natural's receiving terminal in Huelva, Spain.
With the 3rd train on stream, NLNG has fulfilled its target of having three LNG trains in production within three years of initial production in 1999 and achieving greater economic diversification from oil for the nation. NLNG will further enhance Nigeria's flare out campaign, when its LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) facilities come on stream in 2003.
The third train expansion comprises a liquefaction plant similar to trains 1 and 2 and an LPG separation facility. Whilst trains one and two have been run mainly on non-associated gas, the third train and LPG facilities enable the NLNG's Bonny complex plant to process associated gas from crude oil producing fieldsin Nigeria. The addition of the train 3 facilities brings the company's total production capacity to 9 MTPA of LNG and 1.25 MTPA of LPG.
The NLNG plant in Bonny is Nigeria's largest gas project by far and the biggest industrial project ever undertaken in Africa. The final investment decision to build the third train facility was signed in February 1999.
NLNG's train three volumes have been sold on long term contracts for 21 years to GAS NATURAL of Spain and TRANSGAS of Portugal.
Andrew Jamieson, Managing Director of Nigeria LNG Limited confirmed that the project was completed on budget, ahead of schedule and with a safety record of nearly 19 million man hours worked without a lost time injury. This is a world class performance by NLNG and its leading contractor, TSKJ (a consortium of Technip, Snam Progetti, Kellogg Brown & Root and the Japanese Gasoline Company). "These new facilities will consolidate the company's track record as a reliable supplier to the Atlantic basin market", Jamieson noted. "Nigeria is now well placed to serve the demands of countries in the Atlantic basin—Western Europe, Mediterranean, South America and United States. This milestone in our Company's history underlines our current and potential customers' confidence in NLNG, which has been further underscored by their commitment to major additional volumes from Trains 4 and 5 in 2005", concluded Jamieson.
Nine ships with capacities ranging between 120,000 and 137,000m 3 are currently available to transport LNG from the three available trains. Eight of these ships are owned by Bonny Gas Transport (BGT), a wholly owned subsidiary of NLNG, while the ninth is chartered on a long –term basis from Shell.
Nigeria's proven gas reserves are evaluated at 160 trillion cubic feet (3,500 bcm), representing one third of Africa's total gas stock. Nigeria ranks tenth in the world in terms of proven gas reserves. Its natural gas reserves to Production ratio is estimated to last for 110 years.
NLNG is a Nigerian Joint Venture company whose shareholders are the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (49%), Shell (25.6%), TotalFinaElf (15%) and Agip (10.4%).
