Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) today made a significant step towards the Final Investment Decision (FID) for its Train 7 Project, with the issuance of a Letter of Intent for the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) Contract of the project to SCD JV Consortium.

SCD JV Consortium is made up of Saipem of Italy, Japan’s Chiyoda and Daewoo of South Korea.

This is coming on the heels of the Nigeria Content (NC) plan signed with Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and the recent milestone of the 3rd of September, 2019 when NLNG submitted the summary outcome of the commercial bids evaluation for the Train 7 Project to NCDMB in line with the project certification and authorisation procedure.

According to NLNG, the Letter of Intent is one of the key milestones to be achieved on the road to FID by its Shareholders; this expresses the intention to award the main EPC Contract for the Train 7 Project to the preferred bidder, saying that it marks another significant step towards the realisation of Train 7 and its attendant value to NLNG’s Shareholders and for the benefit of the Nigerian economy.

The company also assured that the contracting process was transparent in full compliance with all applicable laws and good industry practices, stating that it will continue to operate its business in an open manner consistent with its core values of Integrity and Excellence.

The Train 7 Project is expected to ramp up NLNG’s production capacity by 35% from 22 Million Tonnes Per Annum (MTPA) to around 30 MTPA. The Project will form part of the investment of over US$10 billion including the upstream scope of the LNG value chain, thereby boosting the much needed Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) profile of Nigeria. The Project is anticipated to create about 10,000 new jobs during the construction stage, and on completion, help to further diversify the revenue portfolio of the Federal Government and increase its tax base. The company said this was in line with its corporate vision of “Helping to build a better Nigeria”. The construction period after FID will last approximately four to five years.

NLNG is owned by four Shareholders, namely, the Federal Government of Nigeria, represented by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (49%), Shell Gas B.V. (25.6%), Total Gaz Electricite Holdings France (15%), and Eni International N.A. N. V. S.àr. l (10.4%).

The actualisation of the Train 7 Project comes as NLNG celebrates 30 years of its incorporation and 20 years since exporting its first LNG cargo in 1999.

•Photo shows, L-R Walter Peviani, MD, Saipem Contracting Nigeria Ltd; Tony Attah, NLNG MD; Chief (Dr) Osobonye LongJohn, Chairman NLNG Board of Directors; Sadeeq Mai-Bornu, NLNG Deputy MD; Mrs Folasade Yemi-Esan, Perm. Secretary, Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources; Aka Nwokedi, NLNG General Counsel and Company Secretary (left standing); and Ikechukwu Eke, NLNG Assistant Company Secretary at the signing of the Letter of Intent for NLNG Train 7 EPC Contract with SCD JV in Abuja.

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