NLNG Train 7 alone is no longer ambitious- Tony Attah

Tony Attah, the former managing director of Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), emphasised that the ambitious goal of NLNG Train 7 alone is no longer sufficient for Nigeria’s aspirations in the global gas market.

Attah, who played a pivotal role in securing the final investment decision (FID) for Train 7, stressed the need for a more expansive vision that encompasses further expansion and diversification.

“While the Train 7 project will add about 35percent capacity to move NLNG from the current 22 million tons per annum (mtpa) to about 30MTPA, Qatar has also taken a very deliberate investment decision to add a whopping 30MTPA to its current 77MTPA to ensure it returns toNo.1 when completed,” Attah said at the Petroleum Club dinner event on Wednesday.

He added, “Essentially Train 7 alone is no longer ambitious and we should now pull up our sleeves to actively pursue the development of our gas reserves as a matter of urgency”.

Attah noted that Nigeria started its “Gas to LNG” journey as a means of arresting gas flares and creating a revenue stream for the economy, just two years behind Qatar.

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“We grew our ambition to build NLNG Trains 1-3 and went on to add Trains 4, 5 and 6 between year 2000 and 2006,” he said.

He added, “During this period in which the 6 Trains were built, we were deemed the fastest growing LNG country in the world by adding a new LNG Train every 18 months, until 2006 after taking the Train 6 FID and then everything came to a halt – trapped by the politics of expansion, lack of political will and dilemma between the brownfield NLNG Train7 development and growing new capacity through green fields like OK and Brass LNG, which have recently gained some mention in the news”.

BusinessDay’s findings showed the Train 7 project is expected to increase NLNG’s production capacity by 35 per cent from the current 22 million tonnes per annum to 30mtpa.

Last June, Nigeria LNG Limited disclosed that the Train 7 gas project on Bonny Island, Rivers State, has reached 67 per cent completion.

On December 27, 2019, NLNG’s shareholders made the final investment decision for the project and on May 13, 2020, awarded the engineering, procurement, and construction contracts for the project to SCD JV Consortium, comprising affiliates of Saipem, Chiyoda, and Daewoo.