Nigeria’s NNPC strikes a deal with Golar to build floating LNG plant

Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Norwegian Golar LNG, an owner and operator of marine LNG infrastructure, to build a floating LNG plant in Nigeria.

The MoU was revealed in NNPC’s social media update which noted that the agreement was signed during a brief ceremony held at the NNPC Towers in Abuja on 26 April.

According to the company, the plan to build the floating LNG plant is a further effort to deepen Nigeria’s domestic gas utilisation and enhance gas export.

Further details about the project were not revealed.

In the meantime, NNPC’s unit LNG Investment Management Services is working on Nigeria’s first floating LNG project in partnership with a local private crude oil sales company UTM Offshore.

The planned facility, which is said to be the first such project developed by an African company on the continent, will have a liquefaction capacity of 1.2 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) and will use the resources from the Yoho gas field owned by ExxonMobil and the NNPC.

In 2021, UTM Offshore awarded the contract for the conceptual design service to JGC Corporation. In late 2022, the consortium of JGC and Technip Energies secured the front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract with the completion date set for December 2023.

The project is also supported by $5 billion from the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank).