State-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corp is joining forces with China’s Wison to develop a floating LNG production project in Nigeria.
According to a statement by NNPC, the company signed a memorandum of understanding with Wison (Nantong) Heavy Industry, a unit of Wison Offshore and Marine, for the development of a floating LNG project in Nigeria, targeting the international LNG market.
NNPC said that the memorandum was signed by the company’s executive VP, gas, power & new energy, Olalekan Ogunleye, and Kai Xu, managing director of Wison.
“Both parties agreed to work together to chart a roadmap for the project development that will lead to an investment decision,” NNPC said.
Besides this move, NNPC Prime, an arm of NNPC Trading, signed a supply, installation and commissioning agreement with SDP Services, an independent oil and gas company, for a 421 tonnes per day LNG project targeting the domestic LNG market.
The small-scale LNG project, which will be located at Ajaokuta in Kogi State, Central Nigeria, will “ensure the efficient supply of LNG to the autogas/compressed natural gas (CNG) and industrial/commercial customers nationwide.”
NNPC expects this project to be operational by December 2024.
“We see both projects as having enormous impact all over the country because they are central to the commercialisation of Nigeria’s abundant gas resources and ensuring that our country earns the much-needed foreign revenue from its abundant gas assets,” Ogunleye said.
NNPC’s FLNG plans
NNPC did not provide further information regarding the FLNG project with Wison.
Earlier this year, NNPC joined forces with Golar LNG to install a floating LNG production unit in Nigeria.
The two firms signed a heads of terms for joint development of gas fields using floating LNG producers.
The relevant fields could fully utilize FLNG Hilli following the end of its current contract in mid-2026, or utilize a MKII FLNG, Golar previously said.
Besides Golar, NNPC signed a heads of terms with compatriot UTM Offshore under which the company will take a stake in UTM’s planned 1.5 mtpa floating LNG producer and supply feed gas to the unit.
As per Wison, the company won a contract from Italy’s Eni in December last year to build a 380 meters long FLNG and officially started work on the project on January 17, 2023.
The unit will be able to store over 180,000 cubic meters of LNG. In August Wison completed the final assembly of what it says is the world’s largest self-supporting prismatic shape IMO type B LNG tank.
Wison also recently signed a deal with US energy services firm Baker Hughes to collaborate on floating LNG and onshore LNG applications, while the company is also working on a floating LNG production project in West Papua, Indonesia.