Nigeria’s First Major Shipyard Project Receives $1.5 Billion Investment

By Chijioke Ohuocha

LAGOS, June 19 (Reuters) – Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company (NLNG) is sponsoring the development of the primary main ship yard in Africa’s greatest financial system at the price of $1.5 billion, in its try to show the nation right into a hub for maritime operations on the continent.

Nigeria is the world’s eighth greatest crude producer and Africa’s prime oil exporter nevertheless it doesn’t have a drydock for sustaining and repairing giant crude vessels, a serious downside for carriers crusing to the nation, NLNG spokesman Tony Okonedo instructed Reuters.

Only South Africa had such a facility on the continent, Okonedo stated, that means that ships travelled an extended distance for repairs. Nigeria has two services that may solely accommodate small vessels, he stated.

Okonedo stated Samsung Heavy Industries and Hyundai Heavy Industries have each agreed a $30 million dedication in the direction of the development of the ability, which might be situated in Badagry, close to Nigeria’s business capital of Lagos.

“It could potentially be used to transport the 2.5 million barrel a day crude business in Nigeria,” Okonedo stated on the sidelines of a media briefing.

Okonedo stated the NLNG organised a roadshow earlier this yr to market the dry dock undertaking to traders, which included multinational oil firms in Nigeria, with giant exploration and upstream actions.

He stated NLNG, which is owned by Nigeria’s state-oil firm NNPC, Royal Dutch Shell, French oil firm Total and Italy’s Eni was in discussions with a strategic investor for the undertaking.

It appointed France’s BNP Paribas and Guaranty Trust Bank to assist elevate round $1.6 billion two years in the past to construct six new LNG service ships, increasing its fleet to 30.

The building of the dry dock, with a measurement that may accommodate 185 soccer fields, will take as much as 48 months to finish and would begin as soon as all of the funding was in place, he stated.

The firm, which was arrange over 20 years in the past, has a capability to provide 22 million metric tonnes of liquefied fuel a yr. It obtains its fuel provide from upstream oil firms and liquefies it for export.

It has long-term provide contracts with consumers in Italy, Spain, Turkey, Portugal and France and likewise sells on the spot market.

Revenues for the primary half shed 25 %, in step with the autumn in crude costs, NLNG stated. (Reporting by Chijioke Ohuocha; Editing by Toni Reinhold)