Oscarline Onwuemenyi
14 April 2016, Sweetcrude, Abuja – Nigeria LNG, operator of the giant Bonny export plant, has announced a 36.6% drop in its revenue in 2015 due to declining oil and gas prices.
Low crude prices, that fell more than 70% from 2014, hit NLNG’s revenue as most of the company’s contracts are indexed to oil.
NLNG earned US$6.84 billion in 2015, as compared to $10.8 billion in the year before, according to NLNG’s annual report posted on the company’s website yesterday.
NLNG currently has 16 long term LNG sale and purchase agreements (SPAs) executed with 11 buyers on a DES basis.
These buyers include Enel, Gas Natural, Botas, Engie, GALP Gas Natural, BG LNG (now part of Shell), Endesa, ENI, Iberdrola, Shell International Trading Middle East Ltd and Total Gas and Power Ltd.
The Bonny Island facility currently has six trains in operation with a total capacity of some 22 mtpa of LNG.
According to the report, NLNG’s expansion plan under the Train 7 Plus project, which will raise the liquefaction capacity to over 30 mtpa, “continues to make progress” toward a final investment decision (FID). SPAs have already been executed with five buyers, the report said.
NLNG is a joint venture compromised of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC (49%), Shell (25.6%), Total (15%), and Eni (10.4%).
Meanwhile, the NLNG has disclosed that since its inception it has paid $55 billion (about N10.9 trillion) to Joint Venture (JV) shareholders and the Federal Government. The company’s assets also currently stand at about $15 billion (N2.9 trillion).
The company, which made this disclosure in its 2016 facts and figures released yesterday put the payment to JV feedgas suppliers from inception till date at $23 billion, of which 55 to 60 per cent of this amount is payable to the Federal Government via its shareholding in the NNPC.
It added that the company also over the years paid dividends of almost $32 billion, out of which 49 per cent went to the Federal Government of Nigeria courtesy of its shareholding in the company, again via NNPC.
NLNG disclosed that it contributes to national wealth and economic wellbeing of states in which it operates, by paying all applicable taxes and tariffs, adding that, its corporate income tax paid to the Federal Government amounted to about $2.2 billion in 2015.