C002D5556
Wednesday 09 May 2018
gas
ENERGY intelligence
Nigeria: Axxela achieves 4m LTI-free man-hours
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Achieved over six years, the Four Million LTI-Free Man-Hours is comprised of operation time in the 12.15MW Akute Power Plant Project (divested in 2016); the 12” x 128km Eastern Horizon Gas Company (EHGC) pipeline traversing Akwa-Ibom and Cross River States (divested in 2014); the Gas Network Services Limited Compressed Natural Gas Mother Station (a 5.3mmscfd CNG Plant); the 10.6 MW Alausa Power Plant Project (divested in 2017); the 12” x 8.5km GLIV gas pipeline project taking gas from Ijora to the Marina in Lagos State; the 12” x 8.5km Central Horizon Gas Company pipeline expansion project from Trans-Amadi through the greater Port Harcourt area; and the installation of Eight CNG Daughter stations across South-West Nigeria.
LNG Market: Asia to remain key buyer of US LNG over next decade
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NG demand in East Asia could jump 150 percent from current levels by 2030, bolstering prospects for the second wave of US export developers that are trying to finance construction of their terminals, a Japanese government energy official said at Offshore Technology Conference in Houston. The comments underscore the importance the region will have in determining the scope of global supplies and the trajectory of market prices in years to come. Across all of Asia, almost a dozen countries are currently importing LNG, while several are expected to begin doing so soon. Japan remains the world’s biggest LNG importer, fol-
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WEST AFRICA
Brief
xxela, sub-Saharan Africa’s preferred fast-growing gas and power portfolio company, achieved Four Million Man-Hours without any Lost Time Injury (LTI) in its operations. The noteworthy achievement was reached on Friday, 20th April, 2018. LTI is a measure of injury sustained on the job that is capable of preventing a worker from performing or continuing with a task or resulting in downtime in the operation. Speaking on the safety landmark, Bolaji Osunsanya, Axxela’s Chief Executive Officer said: “This significant and laudable feat underscores our dedication to always inculcate an enduring safety culture amongst our employees, and our exemplary adherence to best practices in our day-to-day business operations.”
BUSINESS DAY
lowed by China and South Korea. Even as Japan pursues more renewables for power generation and brings more nuclear generating facilities back online, LNG is still expected to account for a significant share of its energy mix, said the official with the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s Agency for Natural Resource and Energy.
Can NNPC really pull off its threepoint strategy on gas flaring? KELECHI EWUZIE
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n the past three decades, Nigerians have consistently watched as successive governments made long term plans on how to end the issue of gas flaring without the will power to push such plans to its logically conclusion. It is with such pessimism that they are viewing the recent Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) threepoint strategy targeted at bringing to an end to gas flaring come 2020. Nigeria was previously the worst gas flaring nation in the world after Russia, but a number of Clean Development Mechanism, (CDM), projects aimed at appropriate gas utilisation have helped the country improve its standing in the global gas flaring chart to the sixth position. According to the strategy, NNPC would ensure non-submission of Field Development Plans (FDPs) to the industry regulator, the Department Petroleum Resources (DPR), without a viable and executable gas utilization plan, a move aimed at ensuring no new gas flare in current and future projects. Maikanti Baru, Group Managing Director, NNPC, said that in the last decade, gas flaring in Nigeria had reduced significantly from 25 per cent to 10 per cent adding that the multi-pronged approach taken by the group would ensure a sustainable solution to the historical problem of flaring. The development would not only see Nigeria dropping from being the second highest gas
flaring nation in the world to seventh, it would also signify a major milestone in its gas commercialisation prospects. The environmental effects and the economic losses of the gas flaring have remained a major concern and threats to many lives, particularly in the Niger Delta region.
Snapshot
$25bn Estimated investment prospect for Nigeria’s gas flare out
Baru also disclosed that the firm would attract nothing less than $25 billion investments into the nation’s oil sector in the next 10 years. Total flares have significantly reduced to current levels of about 800mmscfd and in the next one to two years, we would have completely ensured zero routine flares from all the gas producers,” he stated. As reassuring as the strategies are, industry closer watchers remain to be convinced considering the nature of previous plans and the foot-dragging approach to implementation. They opine that there are huge opportunities in the gas with the country expecting over $25 billion investments anticipated over the next 10 years. Those who know in the gas space observe that the
Nigerian petroleum industry as the largest and the most vibrant in SubSaharan Africa has lots of potentials, especially in the deep water and untapped gas resources. Baru further said the other two strategies are a steady reduction of existing flares through a combination of targeted policy interventions in the Gas Master-plan as well as the re-invigoration of the flare penalty through the 2016 Nigeria Gas Flare Commercialization Programme (NGFCP) and through legislation, that is, ban on gas flaring via the recent Flare Gas (Prevention of Waste and Pollution) regulations 2018. According to him, NNPC has embarked on the most aggressive expansion of the gas infrastructure network aimed at creating access to the market.