Oil & Gas
IN the last 30 years, the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, has spent over $200 million on Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, projects in the Niger Delta and the country as a whole. Tony Attah, managing director, NLNG, said the company is committed to paying 50 percent of the cost of construction of the N120 billion, 38 kilometer Bonny-Bodo road to link its host community, Bonny Island to the main land and Rivers State capital, Port Harcourt.
Speaking at the 2019 Nigeria LPGA and LPG Summit in Lagos, recently, Attah said the road when completed would open up opportunities for rapid socio-economic development of the area and impact on the lives of the millions of Nigerians living in Bonny Island and neighbouring Niger Delta communities, including Ogoni, Okrika, Eleme and Andoni.
Attah, who was represented by Abdulkadir Ahmed, managing director, Nigeria LNG Ship Management Limited, NSML, said the company’s six-train plant had generated over US$100 billion in revenue and paid over US$16 billion dividends to the Federal Government of Nigeria, through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC’s 49 percent shareholding in NLNG. He said the company had paid a total of over US$6 billion in taxes.
“Nigeria LNG has paid a total of over US$6 billion in taxes comprising Companies Income Tax, Tertiary Education Tax, Withholding Tax, Value Added Tax; and other payments to Government, including PAYE, state and local government taxes, as well as regulators’ levies and fees totalling over N51 billion. We have also paid over US$13 billion to the Federal Government of Nigeria for feed gas purchases
“Our operation has helped to reduce about four trillion cubic feet of previously flared natural gas, thereby improving Nigeria’s gas flaring profile from about 65 percent in 1999 to less than 25 percent today. We have also undertaken the role as a major influence of the domestic LPG market in Nigeria, dedicating 350,000 metric tonnes of LPG to the market; an effort that focuses on deepening the penetration of cooking gas to support environmental and human protection through the use of cleaner energy.
“Early in the month, we commenced the direct supply of LPG in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital. Our aim is to ensure product availability, accessibly and affordability. The company has recently began to explore the possibility of delivering LNG in addition to the LPG to the domestic market in line with the Federal Government’s aspirations on gas based industrialization in Nigeria.
“With product availability and accessibility, we expect that more people will be employed in the value chain from the off takers to the major distributors and eventually retail outlets that gets the products into the nooks and crannies of the nation. Ultimately, more and more Nigerians will begin to appreciate the value that cooking gas has over other unhealthy cooking fuels and they will embrace the commodity,” he said.
Moving forward, Attah said the focus of NLNG was to ensure that Nigeria did not miss out on the opportunities for more economic growth, and for a more central role in the global energy supply field. To this end, he noted that Nigeria LNG is set to take final investment decision to increase its production capacity through its Train 7 expansion project.
“Actualisation of Train 7 will re-assure the world that Nigeria LNG is a leading and reliable supplier of LNG with the increase of our production capacity by 35 percent from 22 Million Tonnes Per Annum, MTPA, to 30 MTPA. The increase will further boost the country’s GDP significantly. The Train 7 project will bring immense benefits, including immediate employment opportunities for more than 10,000 Nigerians, and will attract foreign direct investment of about US$25 billion to the country.
“It will be a great achievement if such achievements can be replicated across the country as we believe the country has the resources, but need the industrial will-power by the private sector to make it happen, even if it happens gradually, but steadily. The onus is on those of us in the private sector to find ways to independently or collaboratively help the public sector to reinforce our growth.
“As a visionary company, Nigeria LNG’s projection in the next 30 years is to achieve and maintain top quartile performance in the LNG industry. This way, we ensure we continue to deliver for our staff; shareholders and stakeholders as well as inspiring a whole new generation of Nigerians to believe that they each can conquer the world in their spheres of endeavour.
“We will also continue to support the advancement of our people and the Nigerian society through our sterling CSR initiatives some of which include our commitment to the Bonny-Bodo road project, our top rated Nigeria Prize for Literature, and the Nigeria Prize for Science, our three tier scholarship initiatives, to mention a few.”
– Dec. 9, 2019 @ 11:15 GMT |
Tags: NLNG spends $200m in projects in Nigeria – Attah
