Indigenous oil and gas company, Southfield Petroleum Limited has commenced the development of its $250Million Flagship Utorogu Project.
On 16th November 2016, Southfield Petroleum signed a turnkey $198Million Equipment, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract to develop a 250 MMScfd gas processing facility with China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC).
CMEC is a Chinese engineering company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. It is credited for executing several contracts in Africa including the construction of phase 1&2 of the Olorunsogo power plant in Ondo state, Nigeria.
The contract was executed on a visit by CMEC to Southfield Petroleum Limited in Abuja. Jin Chunsheng, Group Vice President of CMEC led the delegation who was received by Patrick Ndiomu, Managing Director of Southfield Petroleum.
Taking advantage of the opportunities presented, the CMEC team paid a courtesy visit to Ibe Kachikwu, the Honourable Minister of Petroleum, Nigeria. Bello Rabiu, Group Executive Director, Upstream NNPC was also present at the courtesy call.
Funding for the project will come from long term export finance provided by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC).
Additional provisions of the contract include the construction of a captive Jetty, 14,000MT LPG storage, office Buildings , an Amine Unit, training programme for Nigerians and other requisites.
Utorogu gas field is expected to be operational by Q2 2018 with a projected annual production of 200,000MT of LP. The plan is to have the facility operated by CMEC for the period when the Nigerian staff undergo training to achieve seamless technology transfer and capacity development.
On the back of present economic realities, the Southfield Utorogu stands to benefit the country. Firstly, the production of 200,000MT of LPG (Cooking Gas) helps to meet local demand and reduce flaring. Secondly, power generating stations benefit from increased gas supply while over 500 direct jobs and 2,000 indirect jobs are created.
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