The Managing Director of Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited, Dr Philip Mshelbila said the gas firm’s capacity to produce liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is still intact.
He stated this at the ongoing conference to mark the 15th anniversary of the domestic liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) scheme organized by the Nigerian LPG Association (NLPGA) on Tuesday, October 25th in Lagos.
According to Mshelbila, when the construction of Train 7 is completed, it will add about 35% to NLNG’s current capacity subject to gas supply and gas quality.
He also acknowledged the fact that feed gas supply and gas gathering systems have been grappling with major challenges in recent times. He said:
- “Presently, due to floods in the operational sites of NLNG’s feed gas suppliers, there has been reduced gas supply with upstream suppliers’ declarations of force majeure. While NLNG has in turn declared force majeure based on provisions in relevant LNG agreements, our facilities remain unaffected and our capacity to produce LPG is intact.”
Dr Mshelbila said before the flooding, NLNG was contending with the unrelenting effects of crude oil theft, which severely impacted the supply of associated gas to the company’s plant by upstream producers.
Regardless of the challenges, Dr Mshelbila said the NLNG has continued to ship LPG to the domestic market. According to him, the NLNG is determined to return to normalcy.
Meanwhile, the MD also stressed the need for oil producers, importers and refineries to invest in reliable and steady streams of supply in order to ensure steady supplies to Nigeria’s domestic LPG space. According to him, doing this would intentionally spark commitment along the gas value chain.
- “There are other domestic producers of LPG that would need to make investments to enable their product to become available to the domestic market, rather than exporting it.”
What you should know
- Nairametrics earlier reported that NLNG declared force majeure on its 22.2 million ton per year Bonny LNG export facility.
- In August 2022, NLNG said it lost almost $7 billion in revenue so far in 2022 due to a shortage of gas supply.
