EMEKA OKOROANYANWU
Nigeria Gas Company, a subsidiary of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, and Seplat Petroleum Development Company are to raise $700 million for a joint gas project in Imo State. Productive Officer, Austin Avuru, who disclosed this to Bloomberg in Lagos said both parties already have each contributed $100 million in equity.
The plant, which will process wet gas from the unitised upstream fields at OML 53 and OML 21, has an initial capacity of 300 million standard cubic feet per day. It’s scheduled to begin production by the last quarter of 2020 and the first supply is targeted in 2021.
Nigeria’s government is encouraging investments in gas infrastructure to improve supplies to power companies and diversify the economy away from oil, which currently accounts for the bulk of revenue.
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ANOH will target local customers and has the capacity to double production “depending on domestic demand and the availability of feeds including third-party gas,” Avuru said.
Meanwhile Seplat plans to double capital spending to $200 million this year from 2018 as it seeks to take advantage of “relative stability’’ in the Niger Delta region.
The firm, which is listed on the London and Nigerian exchanges, will spend about 70 per cent of its capital budget on drilling after a three-year lull. The rest will be for facilities and gas development.
Seplat is targeting output of 49,000 to 52,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day this year and will probably start seeing a gradual increase in production from next year on sustained expenditure and stability in the delta region.
