Nigeria to Lose LNG Market As New Entrants Emerge

While Nigeria fast tracks the development of its two new Liquefied Natural Gas, LNG, plants-- Olokola and Brass, added in addition to its existing facility, the country risks losing out from more LNG markets like it did in Europe and America, as more new exporters enter the arena.

This is because by 2020, the LNG market is expected to change drastically with the entrant of new players.

The development becomes more worrisome as Vanguard investigations reveal that about $2 billion have gone down the drain for indecision on Brass, while Chevron Nigeria Limited and other venture partners try to find new equity buyers without success.

The Group Executive Director, Gas, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Dr. David Ige, said Brass was off limits for discussions with him when approached on the subject, while Chevron refuses to admit it cannot find new buyers to relief it from OK LNG.

A former Chief Financial Officer, Nigeria LNG Limited, Mr. Victor Eromosele, who spoke with journalists on the sidelines of the ongoing World Petroleum Congress, WPC, in Moscow, Russia, expressed fears about the impact of the new entrants not only to Nigeria, which has only one LNG plant in operation, but also on the LNG price at the international gas market.

He said: "We should expect changes in prices, which is what I tried to articulate. Prices will trend Southwards to around $9.

"We have six exporters; people with licences in the US and I expect that will continue going forward. This simply means that the market will change and prices in America, I expect, will go up and that creates new opportunities actually."

Copyright, All Africa, 2014.