Sam Ikeotuonye
26 January 2014, Lagos – A top official of the Nigeria LNG Limited, NLNG, says the company expects to take delivery of six new vessels in 2016 as scheduled, saying the vessels are part of the strategic plan to enable the company maintain and further improve on its share of the global liquefied natural gas, LNG, trade.
The new additions will raise the number of ships in the NLNG fleet from the current 24 to 30.
According to NLNG programme, building of the new vessels was to commence by last year, for completion in 2016.
Financing were arranged in two programmes: a $308 six-year additional programme debt, APD and a $11 billion 12-year new vessel debt debt, NVD.
The nation’s premier natural gas liquefier recently exported its 3,000th cargo of LNG to its European and Asian customers from its Bonny Island terminal in Rivers State.
Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the company, Mr. Babs Omotowa, said the milestone cargo’s destination was Marmara LNG Terminal for Botas Petroleum Pipeline Corporation in Turkey.
The cargo was shipped aboard the LNG Lokoja, one of the vessels belonging to NLNG, with Omotowa expressing delight that the vessel is manned by a workforce which is about 95% Nigerian, in line with the company’s “aggressive pursuit of technology transfer and its ‘Nigerianisation’ policy”.
This year, the NLNG is targeting export of 325 cargoes, more than the 280 it shipped to the international market in 2013.
