MARKET NEWS
Nigeria begins shipment of N103bn gas from Onne Port - NEW TELEGRAPH
BY Bayo Akomolafe
Nigeria has started the year with low shipment of 226,000 tonnes liquefied natural gas valued at N103 billion ($120 million) from Onne Port to Kuwait and other destinations. The country is expected to export over one million monthly to meet the demand in Europe and other destinations. It was gathered that the price of the fuel is $531 per tonnes in Europe. Leaving the port at the weekend to Kuwait is LNG Enugu with 66,000 tonnes; Stena Clear Sky, 80,000 tonnes and BW Brussels, 80,000 tonnes. In the first three quarters of 2023, the country realised N2.26 trillion from gas exports to Spain, Britain, Portugal, China and other destinations.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that gas valued at N1.01 trillion were exported in the Q3,when compared with the Q2’23 natural gas exports valued at N639 billion and Q1’23, N622 billion. Last year, low production from hindered Nigeria from exporting 10 million metric tonnes of liquefied gas value at $6.9 billion (N5.2 trillion) to bridge the export supply gas in 2023. Findings revealed that out of the capacity of 22.5 million metric tonnes /year (31 Bcm/ year), the country were able to meet only 12.5 per cent to foreign buyers such as China, Spain, Portugal, Britain among others between January and October, 2023. Of the 12.5 per cent exports, it was revealed that Spain, Portugal and China grabbed 44.8 per cent of liquefied gas exports from Onne Port as average price of gas in China was $693.03 per metric tonnes. Spain accounted for 26.4 per cent or 3.3 million tonnes of the exports; Portugal, 11.2 per cent or 1.4 per cent and China, 7.2 per cent or 900, 000 metric tonnes. Meanwhile, the demand for the fuel in Europe has reached 124 million tonnes or $85.9 billion yearly.
However, data by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA)’ s shipping position at Onne Port revealed that only Solaris departed the facility in November 2023 with 80,000 tonnes as Nigeria’s LNG export facility at Bonny remains under force majeure for over a year after it was first declared with output from the six-train plant fallen below 50 per cent of its capacity. Also, shipping data noted that in October 2023 Gaslog Singapore left the port with 80,000 tonnes; LNG Oyo , 66,000 tonnes; LNG River Niger, 66,000 tonnes and LNG Port-Harcourt II, 77,000 tonnes. It would be recalled that trouble started last year, when Nigeria LNG (NLNG) declared force majeure on October 17 2022 after flooding impacted the ability of gas suppliers to feed gas to the facility and remains in place due to continued disruption to gas feedstock supply.
According to the Managing Director of NLNG, Philip Mshelbila, gas supplies to the Bonny plant continued to be disrupted due to recurrent sabotage attacks on pipelines and low production from aging wells. He said: “The company is facing difficulties in getting adequate gas supply and the result is under-production at below 50 per cent of total installed capacity.” The managing director added that NLNG was looking to procure gas feedstock from outside of its traditional suppliers to enhance the performance of the existing six trains at the site. Disruption to gas supply had already reduced production at the plant to 68 per cent of its nameplate capacity last year.
Meanwhile, the International Gas Union (IGU) has said that Nigeria’s Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) export slumped by 1.8 tonnes in 2022 on the back of force majeure declared as a result of the massive flooding during the period. According to the 14th annual edition of the IGU World LNG report, Nigeria emerged as the seventh global LNG exporter in 2022 in the list of the top 20 global LNG exporters for 2022, Australia ranked first, exporting 80.9 metric tonnes during the year, United States, 80.5 tonnes; Qatar, 80.1 metric tonnes; Russia, 33 tonnes; Malaysia, 27.3 tonnes; Indonesia,15.7 tonnes; Nigeria, 14.7 tonnes; Oman,11 tonnes and Algeria, 10.5 tonnes; Trinidad and Tobago,8.8 tonnes.