By Shile GIWA
The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and the Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) has sealed seal pact on the Nigerian Content Plan (NCP) for NLNG’s Train 7 project, estimated to cost $1bn.
The Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Engr. Simbi Kesiye Wabote, and the Managing Director of NLNG, Engr. Tony Attah met at the Board’s headquarters in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State yesterday to finalise arrangements for the signing ceremony.
The Train 7 project is expected to ramp up NLNG’s production capacity by 35 per cent from 22 Million Tonnes Per Annum (MTPA) to 30 MTPA.
The Nigerian Content Plan sets out the work scopes to be executed in-country in each project, based on the provisions of the Nigerian Content Act and existing capacities. The document would form the operating guide for project execution and monitoring.
It would also aid the maximization of Nigerian content deliverables in the project, by giving first consideration to indigenous goods, services and human resources, as well as opportunities to Nigerian companies.
Under the Nigerian Content Plan for Train 7, the NCDMB introduced a provision that would ensure that a lead EPC bidder that has built capacity in-country is not disadvantaged with regards to cost.
The overall scope of work on the Train 7 project includes in-country and out of country work. They are “design, engineering, procurement, expediting, transportation, management, construction, installation, pre-commissioning and start up support and acceptance testing of an expansion to the existing NLNG facility. “
The timely finalisation of the NCP is a key outcome of the Service Level Agreement (SLA) the Board signed with the NLNG in May 2017.The SLA committed the two organisations to timely approvals and compliance with the Nigerian Content.
The scheduled signing of the NCP is expected to enable timeous execution of other activities that would culminate to the planned issuing of tenders in Quarter 3 of 2019.
Attah had last September on the sidelines of the Gastech Conference and Exhibition in Barcelona, Spain told Daily Sun,that NLNG had secured guarantees for gas feed supply and off takers for its planned Train 7 project.
“In terms of volume off-takers for Train 7, we are not struggling because we have guaranteed market for it,” he assured.
Attah added that while the Sales Purchase Agreements (SPAs) are still valid, they may not hesitate to take a second look at it if need be without necessarily changing the off-takers.
He said that the company has made progress on guaranteeing gas supply for the upcoming Train 7 with companies including; Shell, Total and Eni committing to ensuring steady supply of gas feedstock for the project.
“All the volumes anticipated for Train 7 would be coming from our shareholders gas suppliers. We are analysing data books on how much gas would be needed and to know where all the supplies will be coming from. In the next couple of weeks, we will sign off that agreement”, Attah said.
According to him, the FID cannot be taken until the completion of the dual front end engineering design (FEED) which was awarded in July this year to a consortium of B7 JV consortium and SCD JV consortium.
The upcoming Train 7, which he described as a jumbo project, is a two-train project combined as one, already has in place existing sales purchase agreements (SPAs) in place.
