The Federal Government, through the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative, has signed a $27 million deal with the LNG Arete to develop a Liquified Natural Gas project in Ajaokuta, Kogi State.
This project, according to the parties, will aid the transportation of gas to other parts of the country, especially the North.
Speaking during the signing ceremony in Abuja on Friday, Micheal Oluwagbemi, program director of PCNGI noted that LNG Arete limited have gone through various processes and commited about $12 million as counterpart funding for the project.
Oluwagbemi stated that the project is projected to cost a total of $27.3 million, with $6 million being contributed by the PCNGI and additional investment from the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure Fund.
He announced that the completion period for the project is 12 to 18 months, adding that equipment required were already available.
According to him, the Government’s involvement in the project increased the capacity from three million scuffs of gas to seven million standard cubic feet.
“This is what we want when we ask for private sector partnership. We want companies that do not just come to us seeking for freebies, but ones that have already done their work, developed their project, they have identified sources of funding that can plod along with us.
“Our work as government is then to catalyze the finishing funding to make that project a reality, to scale that project. Maybe this project will have a 3mm scope if we don’t come in but now it’s 7mm scope a day and that is our work as government.
But even more importantly is that we are putting incentives in place, which is part of this package of what we’re signing today to fast tracking permits and enabling gas allocation,” he said.
Oluwagbemi explained that despite the country’s abundant gas resources, the constraint has always been not just how to produce it, but also how to distribute it.
He explained the benefits, saying the project is expected to make gas more readily available in the northern parts of the country.
In addition to creating about 100 jobs at the plant in Ajaokuta, he disclosed that three processing plants will be added in each of the 19 northern states.
He said the need to ensure Nigerians enjoy the benefits of cheaper, cleaner, safer, and more reliable gas has driven the PCNGI to seek immediate and sustainable solutions.
“We are here today because Nigerian people have believed in the president’s vision that this country, a country blessed with gas in over 30 of our 36 states, has no business being solely dependent on oil. Gas is cheaper, safer, and more reliable.
“Nigerian people’s belief also meant that all across this country, especially in the far north, there has been increasing demand to be able to access gas to enable transportation and other sectors.
The project is not just a solution that will immediately solve the problem of unlocking gas resources to the north but will also, over the long term, still be quite useful for the economy when those gas resources are in the north.
And that is why the mini LNG technology that we now have, that we have access to, cuts. Why does it cut? With mini LNG, we will be democratizing access to gas resources across Nigeria.
