The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and its partners have taken Final Investment Decision (FID) on the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Train 7 Project. A projected $20 billion revenue and 50,000 direct and indirect jobs are targeted from the venture.

The partners are Shell Production and Development Company, Total and ENI.

The Group Managing Director of NNPC, Malam Mele Kyari disclosed this at the FID Ceremony in Abuja on Friday.

“Today is a great day for our country and it means  two things for us. First, what is known to all is that this is Train 7 FID day. We and our partners, Shell, Total, Eni have agreed to proceed with the FID for the NLNG Train 7 today.

“What this means is that we are going to put in place a project that would ultimately deliver at least 20 billion dollars of net revenue to the federation.

“It will create at least 10,000 direct jobs and also create 40,000 indirect jobs for this country.

“Not only that, it also signifies that is renewed confidence of international investors, particularly our partners which we have known for long time to still agree to put money back into this country, ” he said

According  to him,  the FID will take the country forward and strengthen NNPC’s relationship with the partners going forward.

“For us, it is a show of confidence in our country, and not only that, it is also a show of confidence on Mr President’s determination to put value to this country and to lead the country with example.

“This will make investors put their money into this country.

“For NNPC, our desires are met. We are convinced about doing things right and doing things transparently, with accountability to our shareholders, which include about 200 million Nigerians that we know.”

He further noted that FID on NLNG train 7 would  open way for many things to happen, adding that there was the need for more values to be brought into the nation’s economy.

“NNPC with our partners, we would work together to bring in more projects that would add value to this country in the upstream, in the gas sector and particularly in the midstream processing initiative.

“I would like to thank all the shareholders that in spite all the challenges, we were able to come together to come to this decision.

“We are very proud to be Nigerians today. We know that this would work; it is delayed, but this would work. Mr President’s directive is that we take it to Train 12.

“We have all committed to doing everything possible to take the next step so that we can make further progress, Train 8, 9, 10, 11, until we get to 12, and as soon as possible,” he said.

Mr Henry Bristol of shell said “we are delighted to support this project and the opportunity it presents to Nigeria, we are also excited for the opportunity it presented for our partnership with this country.”

Also speaking, Mr Mike Sangster of Total said the company was proud to be doing business with Nigeria.

“This is a great and fantastic project for Nigeria, we are very pleased to be part of the decision on train 7.

“I want to thank the minister of state and the President for all the support which made us to achieve this decision we have taken today,” he said.

Mr Alessandro Tiani of ENI pledged his company commitment to the project to ensure its success.

In his remarks, Mr Tony Attah, the Managing Director of NLNG said that beyond domestic gas, Train 7 was a global response to what the market had been doing.

“In today’s reality, we are lagging behind as a country and as a company. We did a very basic analysis to compare resource to capacity and we just saw that the opportunities for Nigeria have not really started.

“We were just 24 months behind Qatar when we started in 1999, but today, Qatar has got 77 million tonnes and we have 22 million tonnes. Train 7 would add another eight million tonnes to take us to 30 million tonnes,” he said

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Train 7 Project will increase NLNG production by 35 per cent and its competitiveness in the global LNG market.

This decision allows the expansion to increase the capacity of NLNG’s six-train plant from the extant 22 Million Tonnes Per Annum (MTPA) to 30 MTPA.

This is with the award of contracts for the engineering, procurement and construction activities which follows the closure of bank and Export Credit Agency (ECA) financing.

The finalisation of some key supporting commercial agreements are expected in early 2020.