UPDATE - Chevron signs deal for $1.3 bln Nigeria gas plant
Date: 18-Apr-02
Country: NIGERIA
Author: John Chiahemen
Chevron and partner Nigerian National Petroleum Corp (NNPC) signed the deal with SasolChevron Holdings Ltd, the technology licensor, in Abuja this week, a Chevron statement said.
The project marks the biggest technology cooperation between Nigeria and South Africa, the continent's two most important economies with growing business ties.
The state-of-the-art Slurry Phase Distillate process developed by Sasol of South Africa will be used be used in the facility, integrated with Chevron's own technology.
"These agreements will formally initiate the Engineering, Procurement and Construction phase of the project and put the EGTL (Escravos Gas to Liquids) project, valued at $1.3 billion on track towards completion by mid-2006," it said.
When completed, the facility will propel Nigeria into the select group of the world's leading countries in GTL production, with output of 34,000 barrels per day of premium GTL fuel, naphtha and liquified petroleum gas for export.
Combined with growing volumes of gas exports from its Liquefied Natural Gas complex on Bonny Island, the GTL facility should further ease Nigeria's dependence on crude oil exports for its foreign exchange earnings.
"With its environmental benefits, GTL fuel is a product that offers a range of new export opportunities for producing countries," ChevronTexaco Nigeria's Managing Director Jay Pryor said at the signing ceremony.
"EGTL is bringing these opportunities to Nigeria, together with investment and new technology," he added.
The project is one of the major initiatives by the NNPC/Chevron joint venture to end gas flaring and commercialise the gas being produced along with oil in its operations.
The Nigerian government has been pushing for such projects for the twin objectives of limiting environmental damage through the elimination of greenhouse gases and creating jobs for Nigerians.
NNPC's Managing Director Jackson Gaius-Obaseki said that on completion the facility "will almost totally eliminate routine gas flaring in oilfields operated by the NNPC/Chevron Nigeria Limited Joint Venture."
ChevronTexaco is one of six oil multinationals with which the Nigerian government, through the NNPC, produces oil through joint ventures in which it holds an average 57 percent stake.
