Nigeria’s UTM Offshore has awarded two contracts for the country’s first floating LNG production plant.
Abuja-based UTM Offshore said it signed on Tuesday a pre-front end engineering and design contract with Japan’s JGC Corporation but it also selected US-based KBR as the project’s owners engineer to review JGC’s work.
The work should be completed in about four months from start.
The contract signing follows a licence award from Nigeria’s Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to establish the country’s first FLNG production plant.
Furthermore, the firm plans to install a liquefaction unit with a capacity of 1.2 million tonnes per annum, sourcing gas from the Yoho field which lies in Oil Mining Lease 104, offshore Nigeria.
The Nigerian government holds 60% interest in the Yoho crude oil joint venture, through NNPC, while ExxonMobil’s MPN holds the remaining 40% and operates the development that started production back in 2003.
The new unit would take on the associated gas that the JV currently sends back to the field.
Moreover, UTM said it is in talks with ExxonMobil to prepare for the deployment of the FLNG unit on the block. The FLNG could start production in 2025.
Should the project commercialize, the 1.2 mtpa FLNG would add to the 22 mtpa Bonny LNG onshore plant already produces.
The joint venture behind the six-train plant including NNPC, Shell, Total, and Eni is also adding an additional unit to boost capacity to 30 mtpa in total.