Nigeria is soliciting for partnership among the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), Shell Plc, Chevron, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited and other oil companies in the country in order to increase gas supply to the NLNG plan through joint pipelines.
Minister of state petroleum resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, made the appeal in Abuja during an interaction with the new Italian ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Sefano De Leo.
The minister said that the issue at hand with the existing NLNG Trains is that of insufficient gas supply.
“The partners are running out of gas and they are refusing the third-party to supply gas to the Train,” he said.
According to the minister, “The partners are insisting that they can only allow third-party supply gas to the plant only if they agree to supply at subsidized rates.
“These people of course want to make money and they cannot supply at subsidized rates and that’s why the NLNG Trains cannot produce at full capacity,” he said.
According to him, the partners can afford to supply at subsidized rates because they are partners in the NLNG project, not the third parties.
“This is a very critical issue I want to discuss with the respective partners to see how we can resolve this problem so that we can increase the production capacity of the NLNG,” the minister said.
Sylvia also hinted that the NLNG is only able to produce at about 70% of installed capacity, adding that if the NLNG partners relaxed their rules and allowed third-party to supply gas to the NLNG, the company would be able to provide gas to help ease the European Union’s gas crisis.
Recounting the long-standing relations between Nigeria and Italy, Sylva further solicited the cooperation of the Italian government in providing support for night helicopter rescue operations in Nigeria.
Sylva lamented that currently, helicopters do not fly at night in Nigeria, thereby hampering any rescue operations at night.
“For us, this is a very important matter. We want to develop a 24-hours economy. We want a situation where helicopters can fly 24 hours in Nigeria,” he stated.
Responding to the minister’s request, Amb. De Leo who emphasized that as Africa’s most populous nation, it would be difficult for anyone to ignore the country both at the political and economic front.
“At the moment, the EU wants to diversify its energy sources especially gas and Nigeria is very strategic to us. We have been long-standing friends and partners and one of the most important ones for that matter.
“So, we need to continue to dialogue on how things can be done properly. In Africa, no country is more strategic than Nigeria because of its population, economy and political position. So we are happy to work with you,” De Leo assured the minister.
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