Gas Shortage: FG begs Shell, Chevron, NNPC to allow third-party use of NLNG’s joint pipelines

The Federal Government has said that the existing trains of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas company are witnessing insufficient gas supply, noting that this is why NLNG trains cannot produce at full capacity.

It therefore appealed to partners in the NLNG project to allow the transportation of third-party gas through NLNG’s joint pipelines so as to increase gas supply to the plant.

Following the refusal of the joint partners including Shell, Chevron, NNPC and others, to allow third parties to transport gas through their pipelines to NLNG Trains, the company has been unable to operate at full capacity.

This, according to a statement issued in Abuja by the media aide to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Horatius Egwa, had made the NLNG unable to meet its domestic and international gas obligations.

The statement stated that the NLNG was currently able to only produce at about 70 per cent installed capacity.

It said the Minister of State Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, while meeting with the new Italian Ambassador to Nigeria, Sefano De Leo, in Abuja on Monday, said if the NLNG partners relaxed their rules and allowed third party operators to supply gas to the NLNG, the company would be able to provide gas to help ease European Union’s gas crisis.

Sylva said, “The issue we have with the existing NLNG Trains is that of insufficient gas supply. The partners are running out of gas and they are refusing third party to supply gas to the Trains.

“The partners are insisting that they can only allow third party supply gas to the plant only if they agree to supply at subsidised rates.

“These people, of course, want to make money and they cannot supply at subsidised rates and that’s why the NLNG Trains cannot produce at full capacity.”

He added, “The partners can afford to supply at subsidised 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 stressed on the long-standing relations between Nigeria and Italy and sought the cooperation of the Italian government in providing support for night helicopter rescue operations across the country.

He stated that at the moment, helicopters could not fly in the night in Nigeria, thus foreclosing any rescue operations at night.

Sylva said, “For us, this is a very important matter. We want to develop a 24-hour economy. We want a situation where helicopters can fly 24 hours in Nigeria.”