It, therefore, appealed to partners in the
NLNG project to allow the transportation of third-party gas through NLNG’s
joint pipelines so as to increase gas supply to the plant.
Following the refusal of the joint partners
including Shell, Chevron, NNPC and others, to allow third parties to transport
gas through their pipelines to NLNG Trains, the company has been unable to
operate at full capacity.
This, according to a statement issued in
Abuja by the media aide to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources,
Horatius Egwa, had made the NLNG unable to meet its domestic and international
gas obligations.
The statement stated that the NLNG was
currently able to only produce at about 70 per cent installed capacity.
It said the Minister of State Petroleum
Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, while meeting with the new Italian Ambassador
to Nigeria, Sefano De Leo, in Abuja on Monday, said if the NLNG partners
relaxed their rules and allowed third party operators to supply gas to the
NLNG, the company would be able to provide gas to help ease European Union’s
gas crisis.
Sylva said, “The issue we have with the
existing NLNG Trains is that of insufficient gas supply. The partners are
running out of gas and they are refusing the third parties to supply gas to the
Trains.
“The partners are insisting that they can
only allow third-party supply gas to the plant only if they agree to supply at
subsidised rates.
“These people, of course, want to make
money and they cannot supply at subsidised rates and that’s why the NLNG Trains
cannot produce at full capacity.”
He added, “The partners can afford to
supply at subsidised rates because they are partners in the NLNG project, not
the third parties. This is a very critical issue I want to discuss with the
respective partners to see how we can resolve this problem so that we can
increase the production capacity of the NLNG.”
The minister stressed the long-standing
relations between Nigeria and Italy and sought the cooperation of the Italian
government in providing support for night helicopter rescue operations across
the country.
He stated that at the moment, helicopters
could not fly in night in Nigeria, thus foreclosing any rescue operations at
night.
Sylva said, “For us, this is a very
important matter. We want to develop a 24-hour economy. We want a situation
where helicopters can fly 24 hours in Nigeria.”
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