The Managing Director of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG), Babs Omotowa, in a speech while receiving former Head of Interim Government (ING), Chief Ernest Shonekan, admitted the company has slipped from controlling 10 per cent of the global market share.Excerpts:
Nigeria LNG’s current 6-train facility has a capacity for 22mtpa of LNG, and up to 5mtpa of Natural Gas Liquids (NGL). The company has rapidly grown from its well-earned reputation as the world’s fastest growing LNG plant to a stable production operation with buyers across the Atlantic Basin and Asia Pacific regions, sending one cargo of LNG everyday down the Bonny River to buyers all over the world safely, timely. NLNG currently accounts for eight per cent of the global LNG supplies; it used to be 10 per cent!
Since October 1999 when the first LNG cargo was loaded for delivery in France and following a Final Investment Decision by the shareholders in November 1995, Nigeria LNG Limited has brought significant value to Nigeria. In line with government’s vision of generating as much revenue from gas as from oil, NLNG has successfully pioneered gas monetisation. It is the most significant arrow-head in government’s quest to end gas flaring in the country with the attendant environmental benefits. It is also the biggest single contributor to government’s efforts to diversify the Nigerian economy and income portfolio.
The Nigerian government has reaped over $9 billion in dividends from Nigeria LNG Limited from 2004 to date. The project today has assets worth over $13 billion. 49 per cent of this belongs to the country through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC. The company contributes – in revenue terms – over $9 billion yearly to the national GDP.
But NLNG is more than hard and cold facts and figures. Whilst making so much money for its shareholders, generating considerable Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) for Nigeria, and creating jobs (18,000 at the peak of construction activities), NLNG remains at heart a human and humane company. We are driven by the understanding that a good corporate citizen must be a responsible and caring member of the society in which it operates. We believe that a company cannot morally lay claim to success if it operates in a failed society, hence our deliberate policy on, and approach to, sustainable corporate responsibility.
A major part of our Nigerian content programme is the Nigerianisation scheme. 93 per cent of our workforce is Nigerian, a substantial achievement considering the relatively few years of operating such a pioneering engineering business in Nigeria. NLNG is also at an advanced stage with the ship management knowledge transfer with our ship managers STASCo and Anglo Eastern. Under the arrangement, we have already taken over the management of four LNG vessels. Nigerianisation has also yielded six LNG ship captains and four chief engineers.
Source: The Nation