As part of efforts to grow the gas market and make cooking gas accessible and affordable to consumers, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited and UTM Offshore Limited has signed the Heads of Terms Agreement which spells out terms of 20 per cent equity contribution of the NNPCL in the UTM FLNG Project.
The signing ceremony which took place at the NNPCL corporate headquarters in Abuja is a collaborative effort between the two companies to provide clean energy to Nigerians for various uses.
According to the group managing director, UTM Offshore Limited, promoter of the project, Mr Julius Rone, the signing is indicative of UTMOL’s commitment to help bring down and stabilize the price of cooking gas and make same accessible to more consumers.
He emphasized the benefits to include a healthier environment, investment opportunities and thousands of direct and indirect employment opportunities to Nigerians.
Final Investment Decision (FID) is expected to be taken in the fourth quarter of 2023 with planned Project start up in the fourth quarter of 2026. When completed, it will produce 1.7mmtpa of LNG and 300,000 metric tons of LPG (cooking gas) which will be fully dedicated to the domestic market. The project is estimated to provide direct employment for 3,000 Nigerians and another indirect employment for an additional 4,000 people. The LPG produced will help bring down the price of cooking gas, improve the socioeconomic wellbeing of Nigerians, reduce deforestation, gas flaring and its attendant carbon emission”.
The facility which will be located about 60km offshore at 64m water depth, will be built by reputable engineering companies – JGC of Japan and Technip of France, with the support of KBR as the Owners Engineer.
“Today is a great day for Nigeria. For us at UTM, we are very delighted that NNPCL has considered this project worthy enough to invest in, and to partner with UTM to deliver Nigeria’s first floating LNG.”
“This is a major landmark achievement for an indigenous company to partner with one of the world’s best energy conglomerate which is NNPCL.
“We are very proud to work with NNPCL to deliver this first floating LNG. We believe that with NNPCL on board this project, by the special grace of God, we will deliver the first floating energy by December 2026 just as we promised Mr President.
“Our aim is to complete the FEED towards the end of October 2023, and hopefully start work on the Open Book Estimate, OBE, for the EPC contract in November 2023.
“It is worthy of note that this is the first indigenous company to embark on such a project and by the grace of God, we will succeed together with all our partners who have been working with us on this project since 2019
“It is in light of this that we appreciate the group chief executive officer of NNPCL, Mr Mele Kyari and his management team for demonstrating the uncommon zeal, patriotism and belief in UTM by staking their own commitment to the project. It says a lot about what we are doing and the direction we are headed. I can assure you that in no distant time, Nigerians will start reaping the benefits of the project,” he concluded.
In his speech, the chief executive officer of NNPCL, Mr Mele Kyari, expressed the commitment of NNPCL to the project saying it is a project of utmost importance to the nation that must be supported to succeed at all cost.
“No matter the amount of reserves you have underground, if you haven’t brought it up to the surface, you have done nothing. This is why we are very interested in this project and we are going to do our own part to ensure its success. Be assured that NNPCL is solidly behind this project”, he remarked.
