LNG

Golar LNG Ltd, the shipping company with a small but growing fleet of floating liquefied natural gas production and project vessels including the “Hilli Episeyo” offshore Cameroon and the “FLNG Gimi” for offshore Mauritania and Senegal, has signed another FLNG accord, this time with Nigeria.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) has signed an accord with Chinese shipyard Wison Heavy Industry for the construction of a floating liquefied natural gas production unit to be deployed offshore Nigeria.

Sept 25 (LNGJ) - Two LNG cargoes are heading for the UK this week with the National Balancing Point UK wholesale gas market futures price gathering pace. The “LNG Abalamabie” with 170,000 cubic metres capacity is scheduled to deliver a Nigerian cargo on September 28 to the Dragon import terminal at Milford Haven in Wales, according to shipping data. The cargo was loaded on September 18 at Nigeria’s Bonny Island export plant.

   A second cargo is due at the Dragon facility on September 29 from Peru on board the “Methane Julia Louise” with 167,415 cubic metres capacity. The shipment was lifted on August 28 from the Pampa Melchorita plant on the Pacific coast of Peru.

June 13 (LNGJ) - French major TotalEnergies has made a new oil and natural gas discovery offshore LNG producer Nigeria. “Located in shallow waters, 60 kilometres off the southeast coast of Nigeria, the Ntokon-1AX discovery well encountered 38 metres of net oil pay and 15 metres of net gas pay, while its side-track Ntokon-1G1 encountered 73 metres of net oil pay, in well-developed and excellent quality reservoirs,” said TotalEnergies.

   “The Ntokon discovery opens a promising outlook for a new tie-back development,’’ said Nicolas Terraz, President of Exploration and Production at TotalEnergies. “After the start-up of production of the Ikike tie-back on OML99 in 2022, this new success in the area further demonstrates the potential of nearby exploration to create value within our low cost, low emission strategy,” added Terraz. TotalEnergies is the operator of the OML 102 block with 40 percent and Nigerian National Petroleum Company owns 60 percent.

April 27 (LNGJ) - The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Norwegian shipping company Golar LNG to deploy a floating liquefied natural gas production vessel offshore Nigeria. State-run NNPC said that the Golar LNG Chief Executive, Karl Fredrik Staubo, signed the accord in Abuja, the Nigerian federal capital.

   This would be Nigeria’s second FLNG project after one being developed by UTM Offshore. The private Nigerian company has signed a front-end engineering design agreement with Technip Energies and others for the production hull with 1.2 million tonnes per annum of capacity.

The African Export-Import Bank said it signed a project preparation facility financing accord with UTM Offshore Limited of Nigeria, the developer of a floating LNG export project.

Executive Vice President Amr Kamel of Afreximbank, which is based in Cairo, signed the accord with UTM Chief Executive Julius Rone.

“It marks a continuation of the support of Afreximbank, which has been leading UTM’s fundraising efforts to secure the necessary investments required for the project’s implementation,” said a statement.

In line with Nigeria’s Petroleum Industry Act and global energy transition efforts, UTM Offshore is developing Nigeria’s first FLNG project in partnership with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) and its affiliate, LNG Investment Management Services.

Afreximbank considers this project “significant” as it is the first FLNG joint venture being developed on the continent by African-owned companies.

Scope

UTM is undertaking the development, design and construction of an FLNG facility with nameplate production capacity of 1.2 million metric tonnes per annum and storage capacity of 200,000 cubic metres.

The UTM FLNG unit will be located about 60 kilometres offshore the Nigerian state of Akwa Ibom.

UTM Offshore has given no precise details of likely production totals, though the initial plan was to process around 176 million cubic feet per day of natural gas and condensate.

This FLNG facility is expected to be deployed near the Yoho oil and gas field majority owned by NNPC and whose infrastructure can be used as a hub for additional oil and gas developments.

Nigeria has lagged behind other West African nations such as Cameroon and newcomers like Mauritania and Senegal in establishing FLNG facilities for its extensive natural gas resources. and associated gas in oil fields

Onshore expansion

The country operates the onshore Nigeria LNG plant at Bonny Island in the Niger Delta where output dropped for a second year in 2021 to 16.42 million tonnes, down almost 22 percent from the 21MT shipped in the previous year. NLNG is also hoping to move forward faster and develop its long-awaited Train 7 project.

The NLNG onshore plant with six liquefaction Trains is owned by four shareholders, Shell, the French and Italian majors TotalEnergies and Eni as well as NNPC, which holds 49 percent of the venture.

The onshore Train 7 contract will also have a de-bottlenecking programme and would add around 8 MTPA of capacity to the Bonny Island facility, taking the total nameplate capacity to around 30 MTPA by 2025.

Feb 2 (LNGJ) – The Nigerian export plant at Bonny island is keeping up the flow of LNG deliveries to terminals in the European Union. The 142,650 cubic metres capacity vessel “LNG Adamawa” is heading for the French Mediterranean port of Fos-sur-Mer to deliver a cargo on February 3 from the Nigerian export facility.

   The 177,000 cubic metres capacity carrier vessel “LNG Bonny II” is heading for the southeast Spanish port of Cartagena and will arrive on February 3. Another Nigerian delivery is scheduled for the Huelva terminal in southwest Spain with the 148,480 cubic metres capacity “LNG Ondo” set to berth on February 9.

July 13 (LNGJ) - The 266,000 cubic metres capacity Q-Max carrier, “Umm Slal”, is scheduled to deliver a cargo on July 19 to the UK South Hook terminal in Milford Haven from Ras Laffan in Qatar, according to port authorities. That’s as European LNG values have dropped since last week. The UK’s National Balancing Point natural gas price was last at the equivalent of $1.75 per million British thermal units while the main Continental European benchmark price, the Dutch Title Transfer Facility, was at the equivalent of $1.80 per MMBtu.

   In other European deliveries, the 142,600 cubic metres capacity “LNG River Niger” was scheduled to discharge a shipment on July 19 at the Montoir-de-Bretagne terminal in Western France from the Bonny Island plant in Nigeria. The 140,000 cubic metres capacity “Arctic Voyager” was expected to unload a cargo on July 26 at the Revithoussa terminal in Greece from the Hammerfest plant in Norway. 

UK maritime security consultants, Dryad Global, reported an attack by a single speedboat with 10 armed men on-board on the liquefied natural gas carrier, “LNG Lokoja”, while the vessel was heading for the Bonny Island export plant in Nigeria.

French energy major Total said it expected to approve plans for increased oil and gas activities in Nigeria in the coming months and is also hoping to help increase Nigeria’s liquefied natural gas production with the long-awaited Train 7 expansion.