In what will be Africa's second ever shipyard to augment an existing one in Durban in South Africa, the Badagry facility will be part-sponsored by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company (NLNG), which is investing $1.5bn in the project. NLNG hopes that the scheme will kick-start an attempt to turn Nigeria into a hub for maritime operations on the continent.
Nigeria is the world’s eighth largest crude oil exporter but it does not have a dry dock for maintaining and repairing large crude vessels. This is a major drawback for carriers sailing to the country, as they have to travel long distances for repairs.
NLNG spokesman Tony Okonedo, said Nigeria currently has two facilities that can only accommodate small vessels but with the Badagry facility operational, the country will be able to repair large ships. He added that NLNG organised a roadshow earlier this year to market the dry dock project to investors, which included multinational oil companies in Nigeria, with large exploration and upstream activities.
According to Mr Okonedo, NLNG, which is owned by Nigeria’s state-oil company the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Royal Dutch Shell, French oil company Total and Italy’s Eni, is in discussions with a strategic investor for the project. It has already appointed France’s BNP Paribas and Guaranty Trust Bank to help raise around $1.6bn to build six new LNG carrier ships, expanding its fleet to 30.
He added that the construction of the dry dock, large enough to accommodate 185 football fields, will take up to 48 months to complete and would commence once all the funding was in place.
The company, which was set up over two decades ago, has a capacity to produce 22 million metric tonnes of liquefied gas a year. It obtains its gas supply from upstream oil companies and liquefies it for export. It is not yet clear if the building of new ships will take place at the Badagry shipyard.
Comments
Post a Comment