Nigeria Shortlists 15 Companies Including India's GAIL under Gas Master Plan

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) (Abuja, Nigeria), the state-owned oil company responsible for the regulation, development and supervision of the country's oil and gas industry, has selected 15 companies as potential investors in developing Nigeria's gas sector under the Gas Master Plan. The shortlist was selected from 48 companies that had initially expressed interest in becoming core investors in building the gas infrastructure.

The shortlist comprises 12 foreign companies and three domestic firms. The 12 foreign firms are: GAIL (India) Limited (BSE:532155) (GAIL) (New Delhi), Gazprom OAO (OTC:OGZPY) (Moscow, Russia), E.ON Ruhrgas AG (Essen, Germany), BG Group Plc (OTC:BRGYY) (Reading, England), Centrica plc (OTC:CPYYY) (Windsor, England), Gas Natural SDG SA (MCE:GAS) (Barcelona, Spain), Union Fenosa Group (MCE:UNF) (Madrid, Spain), Korea Gas Corporation Limited (SEO:036460) (Seongnam, South Korea), the business divisions of Royal Dutch Shell plc (NYSE:RDS.A) (The Hague, Netherlands) and Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) (San Ramon, California), PTT Public Company Limited (BAK:PTT) (Chatuchak, Thailand), and StatoilHydro ASA (NYSE:STO) (Stavanger, Norway). The three domestic firms are Oando plc (NIG:UNIP) (Lagos, Nigeria), Global Energy Company Limited (Victoria Island, Nigeria) and Sahara Energy Resources plc (Lagos).

The Nigerian government is keen on leveraging the country's vast gas reserves of 180 trillion cubic feet to boost its economy. The Gas Master Plan, a strategic initiative of the Ministry of Energy, will focus on building the gas infrastructure by offering three franchises around the gas-producing regions of the Southeast Delta, the Southwest Delta and the South-Central Delta. The selected franchise operators will be responsible for setting up a gas-gathering network, the construction of gas processing plants, building liquid storage facilities and the development of required infrastructure to transport dry gas. The government estimates that each franchise will be capable of producing 500 million cubic feet per day of dry sales gas by 2010.

The selected companies will be evaluated in two phases for their capability to execute complex projects, raise finances and expand the country's huge gas potential. Gas consumption is forecast to grow nearly five times from the current 11 billion cubic meters per year to 50 billion cubic meters per year by 2013. Production is set to double to 75 billion cubic meters per year during this period.

Nigeria is Africa's largest producer and the world's eighth largest exporter of oil. Africa's most populous nation, Nigeria accounts for 23.54% of Africa's oil supply. Demand for oil in the country is projected to increase at an annual rate of 5% to 481,000 barrels per day (BBL/d) by 2013. The country has four crude oil refineries: one in Kaduna in the north, two at Port Harcourt and the fourth at Warri in the south. The refineries have a total designed capacity of 445,000 BBL/d. However, none of the refineries has ever operated at full capacity because of inefficient management, poor maintenance, sabotage and organized theft, and inadequate power supply. The refineries at Warri and Port Harcourt are the only ones currently operational and refine about 214,000 BBL/d. The existing capacity is not sufficient to meet the domestic demand for petroleum products. The government is engaged in talks with militant groups to address their concerns that will help in rebuilding the country's battered oil industry.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is one of the fastest growing sectors of Nigeria. Planned projects include the $8.5 billion Brass LNG facility on the Brass Island in Bayelsa state. The plant, which consists of two trains with a total output of 10 million tons per year, is slated for completion this year. The four-train Olokola LNG facility with a designed output of 20 million tons per year is scheduled for commissioning in 2009-10, with two trains planned to go on stream initially. The Bonny Island Seven Plus project trains are scheduled to follow in 2011-12.

View Project File - 84600066 84600069 84600093

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a marketing information service specializing in industrial process, energy and financial related markets with products and services ranging from industry news, analytics, forecasting, plant and project databases, as well as multimedia services.