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| Babs Omotowa MD LNG |
Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited (NLNG), a
joint venture between the government and foreign oil majors, has paid a
handsome $1.6billion dividend to the new Muhammadu Buhari government. the
company’s Chief executive, Babs Omotowa disclosed weekend.
Omotowa said since 1999, NLNG had generated some 85
billion dollars from exports since its inception 15 years ago.
He said the company, which was set up to harness
Nigeria’s vast natural gas resources and produce liquefied natural gas for
export, has also paid billions of dollars to the state in tax.
“Just a few days ago, we paid 1.6 billion dollars to the
government as tax and this will go a long way to assist the new government in
solving some of its problems,” he said.
The new administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, who
became the first Nigerian to oust a sitting president in democratic elections
in March, is facing a severe economic crunch.
About 20 of the country’s 36 states are unable to pay
workers salaries.
Omotowa said the company had paid 30 billion dollars in
dividends to its shareholders over the years, including the government, which
owns a 49-per-cent stake through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
(NNPC).
NLNG’s other shareholders are Anglo-Dutch oil major
Shell, which owns 25.6 percent, Total LNG Nigeria, a subsidiary of French oil
giant Total which owns 15 percent, and Italy’s Eni, which has 10.4 percent.
Omotowa said plans were afoot to expand the NLNG plant in
Finima on Bonny island, in the oil and gas-rich southern Rivers state, by 2017.
“With six trains (production units) currently
operational, plans for building Train 7 that will lift the total production
capacity to 30 million metric tons per annum of LNG are currently progressing,”
he said.
He said Train 7 would cost an estimated 12 billion
dollars, create 18,000 construction jobs and bring in an additional three
billion dollars in exports when operational.
Nigeria currently exports 22 million metric tons of LNG,
making it the world’s fourth largest LNG exporter.
Liquefied natural gas, which is created by cooling
natural gas and transforming into liquid for transport on tankers, represents
around nine percent of global gas demand.
Source: AFP
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