Total Buys Nigerian LNG

Nigeria LNG has signed an LNG sale and purchase agreement with French Total for some of the remarketed volumes from NLNG's Trains 1, 2 and 3, the seller said January 22. The agreement is for the supply of 1.5mn mt/yr for ten years on a delivered ex-ship or free on board basis.

CEO Tony Attah and Total's senior vice president for LNG Thomas Maurisse signed the contract which NLNG says will "boost the company's global presence and market reach, in line with its corporate vision of being a global LNG company, helping to build a better Nigeria."

NLNG is remarketing LNG from three trains as the original contract holders did not want to renew but the partners, which include Total on 15%, wanted to expand the capacity by debottlenecking and also adding a seventh train. The overall expansion will bring the capacity from 22mn mt/yr to about 30mn mt/yr, with the seventh train due to to add about half the extra and the other half from upgrade work.

The final investment decision took a lot longer to reach than expected, owing to problems with marketing. It had been promised a year earlier, which itself represented a delay.

On December 11, 2019, Dutch energy company Vitol signed an SPA with NLNG, whereby Vitol would purchase volumes from Trains 1, 2 and 3 of the six-train NLNG production facility on Bonny Island. Also, recently, NLNG appointed one of Japan's leading banks and the core unit of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group – Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) and one of Nigeria's leading banks – Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, as financial advisers for the Train 7 project, which has cost estimated at between $10bn and $12bn. NLNG's other partners are the government (49%), Anglo-Dutch Shell (25.6%), Total (15%), and Italian Eni (10.4%).