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Shell restores gas supply to Nigeria LNG export plant

By BusinessNews Staff on October 4, 2013

Nine days after it declared a force majeure, Shell Production Development Company, has resumed deliveries to Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited plant on Bonny Island.

Anne-Marie Palmer-Ikuku, spokeswoman for Nigeria LNG today Bloomberg in an e-mailed response to questions on Wednesday that Shell’s “gas supply is now restored and we expect that they remove their force majeure. Nigeria LNG has loaded eight LNG and two condensate cargoes” since September 20 and is currently producing at 95 percent, she said.

Shell, the biggest supplier to Nigeria LNG, on September 23 declared force majeure, a legal step that protects a company from liability when it can’t fulfill a contract for reasons beyond its control, after shutting its Trans Niger pipeline to repair crude leaks due to theft. That cut the six-train Bonny Island LNG plant’s gas supply by 30 percent, Palmer-Ikuku said.

Nigeria LNG’s Bonny Island plant is Africa’s biggest, able to produce 21.8 million metric tons of the chilled gas a year, or almost 8 percent of the world’s total, according to data from the International Group of LNG Importers. The company supplied 15 percent of global LNG for near-term delivery last year, according to the Paris-based lobby group.

Nigeria LNG, which has long-term contracts with buyers in Spain, Italy, France and Turkey, exported 333 cargoes in 2012, the most since sales began in 1999, according to a report on its website.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is the biggest shareholder, with a 49 percent stake. Units of Shell, Total SA and Eni SpA hold 26 percent, 15 percent and 10 percent, respectively.

[Daily Independent]

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