Nigerian firms reducing gas flaring to boost LPG production
Nigeria’s drive to end gas flaring is expected to result in increasing Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) production from domestic companies, a report by Argus Media, which publishes market data for the oil and gas industry, has stated.
It quoted the country’s upstream regulator, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) as pegging domestic natural gas production at 8bn ft³/d (82.4bn m³/yr), of which around 10 per cent is flared.
The country’s flaring intensity, it said, has increased by 10 per cent over the past decade, according to global industry association the International Gas Union (IGU), a period that overlaps with the sale of onshore and shallow-water assets by foreign operators to Nigerian companies.
But the report said that the divestments will mean indigenous producers account for most of this output.
Seplat Energy, it said, already has a sales and purchase agreement (SPA) to take over ExxonMobil’s shallow-water business in Nigeria, including a 51 per cent stake in two Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) recovery plants.
These facilities produced a total of 3,300t of propane, 4,000t of butane and 5,500t of pentanes last month and are forecast to yield 5,100t, 7,200t and 13,200t, respectively, this June, quoting an industry source.
Seplat is also increasing its gas processing capacity at existing assets to 775mn ft³/d in its aim to stop flaring gas by 2024. Integration of LPG extraction at its old and new gas processing plants is expected to start delivering about 100,000 t/yr of LPG by next year.
It also listed Lagos-based Pillar Oil, a marginal field operator, as partnering with a Seplat subsidiary to produce about 38,000 t/yr of LPG in 2025.
