NIGERIA - ExxonMobil LNG Project At Bonny.

Mobil Producing Nigeria (MPN), the local unit of ExxonMobil, on Jan. 18, 2005, announced that it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with NNPC for a pre-feasibility study for a 4.8m t/yr, single-train LNG export facility to be located on Bonny Island near the existing NLNG.

MPN's project, first mooted in 2001 as a joint venture with then separate Chevron and Texaco, as well as with Conoco, could serve integrated power plants within Nigeria, as well as the US and European LNG export markets. The intention is to address flaring limitations being imposed by the Nigerian government on oil producers, and the project probably could not be up and running before 2010.

ExxonMobil spokesman Bob Davis was on March 21 quoted by Dow Jones as saying MPN was looking at pre-FEED work for the plant. He said the cost of the project was not known yet, while a deadline for a decision on the MoU had not been set. Such FEED work usually takes about a year to complete, "so we should have a clearer idea on the project by the year-end". Davis said the new train will be for export to the US and Europe, and - as an integrated project - will also have an associated 200 MW power generation plant (IPP). The IPP will sell its surplus output to Nigeria's state electricity authority (NEPA).

Floating Shell-Statoil LNG Project: Merging Statoil's Nnwa and Shell's Doro gas fields in adjacent offshore Blocks OPL 218 and 219, the two companies and their partners - ExxonMobil, Chevron, Total, Agip and NNPC - have agreed on a fourth LNG project in Nigeria. This has been proposed to be a floating two-train plant with a combined capacity of 6-10m t/y by 2009/11.

The two gas fields, in the Niger Delta, have 9.5-10.5 TCF of recoverable reserves. A feasibility study for the LNG project has been made by the two partners. The LNG will go mostly to the US market, with some to be exported to Europe.

There are competing LNG export projects in Egypt, Angola, Equatorial Guinea and Namibia.