A unit of UK-based LNG giant Shell and its partner Sunlink Energies and Resources have taken the final investment decision for the development of the HI gas project offshore Nigeria to supply Nigeria LNG’s Bonny Island export plant.
The HI project is part of a joint venture between Sunlink Energies and Resources (60 percent) and Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company, or SNEPCo (40 percent).
When completed, the project will supply 350 million standard cubic feet (approximately 60 thousand barrels of oil equivalent) of gas per day at peak production to Nigeria LNG, according to a statement by Shell.
Shell did not reveal the financial details.
The HI field was discovered in 1985 and lies in 100m of water depth around 50km from the shore.
According to the firm, the current estimated recoverable resource volumes of the HI project are approximately 285 mmboe (million barrels of oil equivalent).
The project consists of a wellhead platform with four wells, to be installed at the HI field location, a pipeline to transport the multiphase gas to onshore at Bonny, and a gas processing plant at Bonny, from where the processed gas will be transported to NLNG and the condensate to the Bonny oil and gas export terminal.
Shell said production is expected to begin before the end of this decade.
Nigeria LNG expansion
“Following recent investment decisions related to the Bonga deep-water development, today’s announcement demonstrates our continued commitment to Nigeria’s energy sector, with a focus on deepwater and integrated gas,” said Peter Costello, Shell’s upstream president.
“This upstream project will help Shell grow our leading integrated gas portfolio, while supporting Nigeria’s plans to become a more significant player in the global LNG market,” he said.
NLNG is a joint venture owned by state-controlled Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (49 percent), Shell (25.6 percent), TotalEnergies (15 percent), and Eni (10.4 percent).
Its giant Bonny Island liquefaction plant currently has six trains and a capacity of 22 mtpa.
Besides the six existing trains, Nigeria LNG is also adding the seventh production unit at the Bonny Island plant.
The NLNG Train 7 project consists of the construction of one complete LNG train and one additional liquefaction unit.
The new unit will add around 8 mtpa of capacity to the Bonny Island facility, bringing the total to about 30 mtpa.
Shell noted the increase in feedstock to NLNG, via the Train 7 project that aims to expand the Bonny Island terminal’s production capacity, is in line with its plans to grow its global LNG volumes by an average of 4-5 percent per year until 2030.
