Golar LNG has confirmed that it is in talks with Nigerian authorities about establishing a power project that could use one of its vessels to import liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Golar’s Chief Commercial Officer, Robert Carter, noted that the company was looking into a “fully integrated gas and power project” in the state of Lagos.
According to him
“We’re in discussions with Nigerian authorities. We’re trying to develop a terminal there that could include the utilisation of domestic LNG supplies.”
The company said it is planning to expand beyond its core LNG shipping and terminal business that owns half of the $1.7 billion Sergipe power plant project in Brazil, with which it also provide a Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) to take delivery of LNG.
The LNG-to-power projects comprises of an LNG import terminal such as an FSRU vessel; infrastructure such as pipelines for the regasified gas; and a power plant which uses the gas as feedstock to produce electricity.
Nigeria’s potential in gas supply
Nigeria has a massive oil and gas deposit, with a large Liquefied Natural Gas export terminal, but still needs to import fuels for vehicles and suffers power shortages due to poor infrastructure and chaotic governance of its energy sector.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Shell, Total and Eni recently signed the front-end engineering design contract of the Train 7 of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited. NLNG says it plans to invest $7 billion on the Train-7 project which would expand its production capacity to 30 mtpa making Nigeria the 3rd largest exporter of gas in the World after Qatar and Australia.
Golar LNG was founded in 1946 and it is one of the world’s largest independent owners and operators of marine-based LNG midstream infrastructure – active in the liquefaction, transportation and regasification of natural gas.