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By Joel Anekwe
The actualisation of the Train 7 of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) has become more real with the issuance, Wednesday of a letter of intent for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract of the project to SCD JV Consortium by the liquefied gas company.
This is considered a significant step towards the final investment decision (FID) for its Train 7 project, even as the company had earlier signed the Nigeria Content (NC) plan with the Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board (NCDMB).
The company also on September 3, 2019 submitted the summary outcome of the commercial bids evaluation for the Train 7 project to NCDMB in line with the project certification and authorization procedure.
The SCD JV Consortium on the Train 7 project is made up of Saipem of Italy, Japan’s Chiyoda and Daewoo of South Korea.
According to NLNG, the letter of Intent is one of the key milestones to be achieved on the road to FID by its shareholders; this expresses the intention to award the main EPC contract for the Train 7 project to the preferred bidder saying that it marked another significant step towards the realization of Train 7 and its attendant value to NLNG’s shareholders and for the benefit of the Nigerian economy.
The company also assured that the contracting process was transparent and in full compliance with all applicable laws and good industry practices, adding that it would continue to operate its business in an open manner consistent with its core values of integrity and excellence.
The Train 7 project is expected to ramp up NLNG’s production capacity by 35% from 22 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) to around 30 MTPA. The project will form part of the investment of over US$10 billion including the upstream scope of the LNG value chain, thereby boosting the much needed Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) profile of Nigeria.
“The project is anticipated to create about 10,000 new jobs during the construction stage, and on completion, help to further diversify the revenue portfolio of the Federal Government and increase its tax base,” the company stated in a press release issue in Port Harcourt by Eyono Fatayi-Williams, general manager, External Relations.
NLNG said this was in line with its corporate vision of ‘Helping to build a better Nigeria,’ with the actualisation of the Train 7 project coming as NLNG celebrates 30 years of its incorporation and 20 years since exporting its first LNG cargo in 1999.
The construction period after FID will last approximately four to five years.
NLNG is owned by four shareholders, namely, the Federal Government of Nigeria, represented by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (49%), Shell Gas B.V. (25.6%), Total Gaz Electricite Holdings France (15%), and Eni International N.A. N. V. S.àr. l (10.4%).