About 177,000 cubic meters of liquefied natural gas is set to be delivered by Nigeria to REN-operated Sines LNG import terminal in Portugal.
The cargo carrying the commodity is said to have left from Nigeria LHG’s Bonny Island liquefaction plant onboard the dual fuel diesel electric (DFDE) LNG carrier LHG Lagos II.
Shipping data from the port of Sines shows that the LNG carrier is scheduled to dock at the terminal on August 18.
NLNG’s Bonny Island facility has the capacity to produce 22 mtpa of liquefied natural gas from its six trains.
Although Nigeria LNG (NLNG) produced 1.8 MT less in 2016, it still maintains its position as one of the top five exporters of LNG in the world. The recent reduction in production was due to domestic unrest in the Niger Delta region, as well as a period of extended maintenance during the first half of the year.
According to the International Gas Union (IGU) world LNG 2017 Report, Nigeria remains one of the top five exporters by share of LNG between 2015 and 2016.
The order of the top five exporters by share include; Qatar, Australia, Malaysia, Nigeria, and Indonesia; respectively. The report also revealed that the volume traded between Nigeria and Portugal was 0.88 (MTPA).
It however noted that most of the decline in short-and medium-term trade were primarily the result of supply-side factors. For instance, Nigeria saw non long-term deliveries fall by over 1.5 MT owing to production outages and feedstock shortfalls.
Also, the reduction in utilisation at Nigeria was due in part to force majeure being declared on a feed gas pipeline in mid-2016.
In addition, it noted that Qatar, Australia, Malaysia, Algeria, and Nigeria, account for more than 60% of the world’s nominal liquefaction capacity.
The commodity destination, Sines LNG terminal, located on Portugal’s Atlantic coast, has a nominal send out capacity of 600,000 cubic meters per hour (5.26 bcm per year), with a peak capacity of 900,000 cubic meters per hour.