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From Magnus Eze, Abuja
Amid reservations by some people about the recently signed 20-year Gas Sales Aggregation Agreement (GSAA) between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Total Joint Venture and the Greenville LNG Limited, the project has been described as the greatest thing to happen to Nigeria’s gas sector in recent times.
Chairman of Greenville, Mr. Eddy van den Broeke, in an interaction with newsmen in Abuja, said the project development for processing and supply of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) for power plants and local industries through trucking would create at least 7,000 jobs outside the reach of the Nigerian gas pipeline.
He explained that 2,000 of them would be permanent while the other 5,000 would be created along the value-chain as the LNG is transported and distributed nationwide by a fleet of between 250 and 500 adapted LNG trucks, providing the ability to reach stranded customers.
Broeke further said that the initially developed distribution backbone was expected to facilitate future geographical expansion.
According him, the project would engender “seamless and reliable transportation of gas to locations in Nigeria that are not presently served or which cannot be served by gas transmission networks; ensuring judicious utilisation of Nigeria’s gas resources; a significant portion of which is presently being flared and wasted. It will reduce costs of production and, consequently, prices of products in the Nigerian market; revive gas-based industries and other large scale commercial ventures. It will allow Nigeria to get back to a stronger financial position again.”
He added that $500 million investment in the first phase will go up to about $850 million and completely on equity without any bank financing.
