GAIL, Petronet eye stake in Nigerian LNG projects

Government-owned gas marketer GAIL India and Petronet LNG Ltd are looking to pick up stake in liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in Nigeria to secure supplies for the country’s rising energy needs.

Petroleum Minister Murli Deora today discussed the possibility of GAIL and Petronet acquiring stake in the $8-billion LNG project at Brass in Bayelsa state of Nigeria with Emmanuel O Egbogah, special adviser to Nigerian President. Deora also discussed, as an alternative, the possibility of their participating in BG Group’s Olokola LNG expansion on the south-western coast of the African nation.

“We expressed interest in sourcing LNG (on long-term contract) from Nigeria and discussed the possibility of GAIL and Petronet joining in a LNG project,” Petroleum Secretary S Sundareshan said on the sidelines of the Petrotech-2010 conference on oil and gas here.

The state-owned Nigeria National Petroleum Corp has a 49 per cent stake in Brass LNG, while Total SA of France, Eni SpA of Italy and ConocoPhillips Co each hold 17 per cent.

Nigeria, which had proven natural gas reserves of 185 trillion cubic feet, said it would consider India’s request.

Sundareshan said India also sought additional crude oil supplies from Nigeria, which planned to raise its output from 2.7 million barrels per day (bpd) to 4 million bpd by 2012.

“We can easily take 3-4 million tonnes more Nigerian crude on top of about 13 million tonnes that we currently source from them,” he said.The Nigerian official was “very positive” and asked the Indian government to send a letter for formalising a government-to-government agreement.

Sundareshan said Nigeria had also invited Indian firms to participate in its next exploration licensing round, expected in the first half of 2011.