State-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corp and floating player Golar LNG plan to take a final investment decision on a floating LNG project offshore Nigeria’s Niger Delta by the end of this year.
NNPC said in a statement it has executed a project development agreement (PDA) with Golar LNG for the deployment of an FLNG offshore the Niger Delta.
The signing ceremony took place on June 10 and was attended by NNPC’s CFO Umar Ajiya, executive VP, gas power and new energy, Olalekan Ogunleye, and executive VP for upstream, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, while the Golar LNG team was led by CEO Karl Fredrik Staubo, it said.
NNPC said the PDA is another “major milestone” achievement towards ensuring gas commercialization through deployment of an FLNG facility in Nigeria.
The agreement aims to monetize vast proven gas reserves from shallow water resources offshore Nigeria.
NNPC said the PDA also outlines the monetization plan that will utilize about 400-500mmscf/d and produce LNG, LPG, and condensate.
The partners “have both expressed their commitment to achieve a final investment decision (FID) before the end of the fourth quarter of 2024 and first gas by 2027,” NNPC said.
NNPC did not provide further details of the project.
Hilli or MKII FLNG
Golar said in August last year it has signed a heads of terms with Nigeria’s NNPC for joint development of gas fields using floating LNG producers, expanding on their deal signed in April the same year.
Nigeria’s gas specifications and met-ocean conditions are ideally suited to Golar’s FLNG solutions, the firm said.
Golar and NNPC have agreed an integrated contractual framework for the joint development of specific gas fields towards potential FLNG projects, the firm said at the time.
The relevant fields could fully utilize FLNG Hilli following the end of its current contract in mid-2026, or utilize a MKII FLNG, Golar said.
The LNG firm led by Tor Olav Trøim recently also said that it has “progressed to detailed contract negotiations for an up to 20-year FLNG deployment” but it did not provide the location of the development.
According to Golar, this FLNG development has a planned start-up during 2027.
Golar owns the 2.4 mtpa Hilli FLNG located in Cameroon, and it also owns Gimi, which arrived this year at the site of BP’s Greater Tortue Ahmeyim project offshore Mauritania and Senegal.
As per the MKII 3.5 mtpa FLNG project, Golar exercised its option last year to acquire the 148,000-cbm Moss-type carrier, Fuji LNG, which it aims to convert to a floating LNG producer.
Golar recently said the MKII FLNG project development continues, with previously ordered long lead items now 58 percent complete.
The company took delivery of Fuji LNG on March 4, 2024.