Nigeria LNG resumes spot sales after eight-month hiatus

Singapore (Platts)--19Apr2006

Nigerian LNG resumed spot sales this month after being out of the spot
market since last August when it was forced to declare a force majeure due to
a pipeline leak and subsequent fire at its 17 million mt/year Bonny Island
liquefaction plant, industry sources said this week.
Though the force majeure was lifted late September, the company had to
clear a backlog of supplies for its term customers, before it could start spot
sales.
NLNG loaded one spot cargo early-April and one last week, a Nigerian
source told Platts. The destination of the first cargo was not immediately
known but the second cargo is believed to be headed for South Korea with
US-based Excelerate Energy having played the middleman.
Officials at Korea Gas Corp, NLNG and Excelerate declined to comment on
the sale. NLNG officials also declined to provide details on the prices
fetched by the two cargoes.
Nigeria is widely deemed by industry players to be the only "true spot
seller" in a market dominated by long-term contracts. NLNG has intermittently
floated spot sell tenders since 2003 and started offering cargoes more
regularly since July 2005 following an expansion at the Bonny plant.
NLNG started up a new 4 million mt/year Train 4 last year. Its latest
unit, Train 5 with 4 million mt/year capacity, started production in January
this year and has exported its first cargo to the US, an NLNG official said.
However, the operation rates at the two new trains are still "building
up" and have not yet reach 100% of capacity, the official added.
Trains 4 and 5 brought total LNG capacity at Bonny Island to 17 million
mt/year. NLNG is also planning to build a sixth train with 4 million mt/year
capacity, with first production anticipated in end-2007.
The stakeholders in NLNG are Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
(49%), Shell (25.6%), Total LNG Nigeria Limited (15%) and ENI (10.4%).
-- KimFeng Wong, kim_f_wong@platts.com


 

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