The Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited has said there is an improvement in the availability of some oil pipelines across the country. NLNG confirmed this to Reuters in an article seen by Nairametrics.
According to NLNG, the improvement occurred since the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited led the fight against crude oil theft in the country’s Niger Delta region. The government has also recruited Tompolo, an ex-militant to tackle crude oil theft in the Niger Delta region.
- Reuters reports that NLNG spokesman, Andy Odeh wrote in an email: “We have begun to see improvement in the availability of key crude oil transportation trunklines. If this trend is sustained, we expect it will support improved gas supply to NLNG once currently flooded oil and gas infrastructures become accessible.”
Limited operations due to flood: In October 2022, NLNG declared force majeure but maintained that it was still operating but at limited capacity due to extreme flooding in several communities across the Niger Delta region. At the time, NLNG had said that the force majeure was a consequence of a similar notice by upstream gas suppliers due to the impact of flood in their production facilities.
Nairametrics had earlier reported that Nigeria’s oil and gas exports were at risk, due to the high rate of flooding in Rivers, Delta, and Bayelsa states of the Niger Delta region. The report indicated that most communities in oil and gas-producing areas in the Niger delta were flooded, potentially placing oil and gas facilities at severe risk of shutting down production.
According to Reuters, Odeh also said the NLNG Train 7 project, which would increase output at its Bonny Island LNG plant to 30 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) from 22 mtpa, was 32% complete. He said: “Construction has commenced in earnest and going according to plan.”
For the record: In October 2022, the chief financial officer at NNPC Limited, Umar Ajiya said that Nigeria loses $150million in revenue every other day from pipeline vandalism and sideline production.
This was after the NNPC Group Managing Director, Mele Kyari told members of Nigeria’s National Assembly on October 4, that NNPC had uncovered an illegal 4km pipeline from Forcados in Delta State to the sea and a loading port that has operated for the last nine years.
