Seventeen years after the construction of the Brass LNG plant was abandoned, the Federal Government has disclosed that it was seeking new investors to complete the project.
The Minister of State Petroleum Resources Chief Timipre Sylva who disclosed this during an inspection of the project site, in Twon Brass, Bayelsa State at the weekend pledged government’s commitment to the completion of the project.
Chief Sylva who toured the project with management of Greenville NLG, an interested investor in the BLNG, said the government was desirous of completing the project because of the manifold economic benefits it will bring to the nation.
The BNLG, which has trains 1-4 concept, with an annual projected capacity of 8.4 million metric tons, was initiated in 2005 with the ground breaking ceremony performed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo on May 14, 2007.
The Minister, who was joined on the tour of the project site by the Chairman and Managing Director of Greenville LNG Mr Eddy Van Den Broeke and Ritu Sahajwalla, said the Federal Government would give the project top priority because of its present policy thrust in gas exploration in the country.
“You know the direction of the government as far as gas is concerned. We want to use gas as transition fuel and also to use it to diversify our economy. You know that with gas you can get so many things and I have said that we can truly diversify our economy through gas,” he said in a statement by his media aide, Horatius Egua.
The minister who acknowledged the challenges faced in successfully executing the project in the past noted that the government would do everything possible to encourage Greenville NLG in investment in the multi-billion dollar BNLG noting that “we want this project to pull through this time and we will do everything possible to ensure that the Final Investment Decision (FDI) is taken as soon as possible”.
Present investors in the Brass NLG project are the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), Eni and TotalEnergies.
SOURCE: vanguardngr.com
