SOME of Nigeria liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG Limited’s existing gas contracts will expire by 2022 at which time buyers of the LNG from Nigeria would no longer take deliveries of the product. Specifically, trains 1, 2 and 3 of the NLNG plant on Bonny Island, Rivers State, which commenced operation in 1999, would be out of contract in five years time.

This has, consequently, prompted fresh efforts by the company to seek new buyers for the trains’ 1-3 products across the world to replace some of the existing customers whose contracts will expire by 2022. The contracts that will expire by 2022 take gas supplies from Trains 1, 2 and 3, which collectively produce nine million tonnes of LNG a year.

The Bonny Island plant of NLNG has six trains – 1, 2,3,4,5 and 6 – producing a total of 22 million tonnes per year. Reuters quoted a senior official of the company as saying late on Wednesday at the Gastech trade conference in Chiba outside Tokyo, Japan that initial responses from buyers have been positive.

“Trains 1-3 are coming back to the market as they are out of contract by 2022. We started to re-market today. There are some who are guaranteed to buy,” the official said, though he provided no further details.

Trains are units that freeze natural gas into liquid form for export on ships. Trains 1 and 2, which are referred to as its base projects were financed by its shareholders with $3.6 billion, while Train 3 referred to as expansion project was financed with $1.8 billion.

The company has a six-train complex of 22 metric tonnes per annum, mtpa, LNG nameplate production capacity, and 5mtpa Natural Gas Liquids, NGLs, production capacity, and has delivered over 3,000 cargoes of LNG to customers across the world.

—  Apr 24, 2017 @ 01:00 GMT