Nigeria’s state oil company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) announced on Wednesday, April 26 that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Norway’s Golar LNG. According to the announcement by NNPC, the agreement will see the construction of a floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant. The agreement was signed by NNPC CEO Mele Kyari and Golar LNG CEO Karl Fredrik Staubo in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city.
“In furtherance of its efforts to deepen Nigeria’s domestic gas utilization and enhance gas export, NNPC Limited has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a Norwegian company, Golar LNG (GLNG), to build a floating liquified natural gas (LNG) plant in Nigeria,” NNPC tweeted. “Group CEO of NNPC Limited, Mallam Mele Kyari, and CEO of Golar LNG, Mr. Karl Fredrik Staubo, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective companies during a brief ceremony held at the NNPC Towers in Abuja.”
No further information was provided by the respective companies regarding the time scale of the project. Nigeria is Africa’s largest producer of natural gas while Golar is reportedly one of the world’s foremost independent owners and operators of marine-based LNG infrastructure. The infrastructure owned and operated by Golar allows the liquefaction, transportation, and regasification of natural gas. Golar LNG had previously stated intentions to set up infrastructure to transport natural gas from Nigeria and this MoU is the first step towards the construction of the plant.
As Africa’s biggest producer of natural gas, Nigeria has been signing MoU with various countries to supply them with natural gas. In early 2022, Nigeria signed agreements with Algeria and the Niger Republic. The West African country is currently overseeing the construction of the 381.5 miles long Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline, which starts in northern Nigeria and will flow through Algeria, Niger, and is touted to connect to Europe eventually. There is no definitive date of completion of the pipeline, which was first proposed in the 1970s. The success of the pipeline would be significant as it would create an alternative natural gas market. In 2020 former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration announced the intentions of Nigeria to expand its presence in the gas sector. The initiative was labeled “The Decade of Gas.”
