Seplat Energy has set new commencement target to kick-start its part of the Assa North-Ohaji South Gas processing project.
If all goes well, the company will fully begin work on the project by the middle of next year, Roger Brown Chief Executive Officer, CEO of the company said on Tuesday.
The Assa North-Ohaji South Gas project, or ANOH, a joint venture with a unit of state-owned Nigeria National Petroleum Corp., will process 300 million standard cubic feet MMcf/d of gas for the domestic market in the first phase, Brown told the media on the sidelines of Africa Oil Week in Dubai.
“The project is expected to produce about 25,000 b/d of condensate,” he said.
“Our design as such we have got a lot of land and we put the infrastructure in such a way that we can scale it,” Brown said. “It all depends on the demand. There is plenty of gas.”
Shell is also developing its side of ANOH, another 300 MMcf/d gas processing plant, which will also produce 20,000 b/d of condensate.
The ANOH project will come from a unitized field between Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria JV’s OML 21 and Seplat JV’s OML 53, according to Shell’s website.
Nigeria has the world’s ninth largest proven gas reserves, at 200 Tcf, according to official estimates.
However, the country burns off vast amounts of gas produced along with crude from mostly onshore oil fields in the Niger Delta, due to the lack of infrastructure to make use of it.
Seplat, which remains focused on Nigeria, is leaning toward increased development of gas as part of its environmental, social and governance tilt.
“We see gas processing as a really great development for the country because its strategic for the government,” Brown said. “Gas processing will then allow that gas to go to industrial zones but also into power, which will displace diesel.”
It may also look at LNG potential in the future, the CEO said.
“If we acquire assets with enough gas reserves, we may look at LNG,” Brown said. “We have export quality gas and one thing that we have been looking at is exporting that gas on West Africa gas pipeline.”
The company’s 2021 production outlook ranges between 48,000 to 52,000 boe/d, almost split equally between oil and gas.
Financing for energy projects, however, is getting more difficult as the climate change debate heats up globally.
“It’s a perfect storm we have at the minute because capital is not going into energy sector very easily,” said Brown. “We are saying we are trying to balance here between environmental reduction and social growth in the country in Nigeria, its critical we get both right.”
Nigeria has committed to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2060, while underlining the importance of gas as a transition fuel, President Muhammadu Buhari said late November 2 at the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland.
Buhari said gas should be embraced as “transitional fuel” for Nigeria and other African countries, and not be demonized.
He admitted that Nigeria will need a lot of financial assistance to achieve this target, and he urged international leaders to help fund renewable energy and gas projects in Africa.