The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals Ltd., on Saturday, signed a Memorandum of understanding for the development of a multi-billion dollar gas project in Nigeria.

Speaking at the MOU signing event, in Abuja, NNPCL’s Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, said the agreement was in line with the Federal Government’s move to improve domestic gas production and utilization in the country, as he announced that Indorama would invest at least $7bn in the project in short term.

According to NNPC Ltd.’s GCEO, with this project, “we are seeing an annual contribution of $3bn to the nation’s GDP and a lifetime contribution of $18bn to government revenue.”

On his part, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Africa, Indorama Energy Pte Ltd, Manish Mundra, described the partnership as a strategic collaboration to promote the use of natural gas by large-scale gas utilisation industries and that the initiative would make Nigeria one of the largest producers of urea and fertiliser.

Giving a breakdown of the project, Chief Upstream Investment Officer, NNPC Upstream Investment Management Services, NUIMS, Mr. Bala Wunti said the project would involve drilling for gas.

“The scope of the project involves the delivery of gas, which will require us to do some drilling and development activities. It will require us to put in place a very robust gas delivery infrastructure through pipelines but most importantly, it will also incorporate a liquid management solution in the form of a condensate refinery.“Overall, the anticipation is that at the peak of the project, about 800 million scuff of gas will be made available for domestic use, part of which will be used to provide the needed quantity of gas by Indorama. And the balance will be supplied to the domestic market to meet power demand, commercial and other activities particularly in eastern Nigeria”, Wunti explained.