Managing Director of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), Tony Attah, told House of Representatives’ members on Wednesday that over $100 billion worth of revenue had so far been generated since its inception 13 years ago.
Attah made the disclosure in the second day of an ongoing investigative hearing into the ‘Proposed Sale of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Limited, NLNG: Need to Investigate Contracts for Modification of EGP3B Production Platform Following the Joint Ventures Agreement between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and Chevron Nigeria Limited’, and ‘Investigation of the Contract for the Upgrade of OML 58 Upgrade 1, the Execution of Obote/Ubeta/Rumuji (OUR) Pipeline’.
This was as the committee insisted on taking testimonies from the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Maikanti Baru, over multi-billion dollar Joint Venture (JV) contract variations.
Addressing the panel on Wednesday, the NLNG boss said the Federal Government, through the NNPC, which owns 49 percent equity, got over $15 billion dividends and $6.5 billion tax, which positioned the company as the singular highest tax paying entity, not only in Nigeria but also on the African continent.
Out of the entire equity share, other shareholders namely, Shell Gasa BV holds 25.6 percent equity; Total Plc holds 15 percent, while ENI International holds 10.4 percent.
Attah said: “Despite our contribution to the country, a lot of it is monetary more than $100 billion revenue and about $15 billion dividend to the government directly, and also since we became tax-paying company since 2009, we’ve contributed more than $6.5 billion in taxes, helping to build a better Nigeria but, essentially, we do more than financial contribution.
“As a result of Nigeria LNG being in existence, we have helped reduce gas flaring by more than 65% and will continue to work with our upstream suppliers to mop-up more because we produce the opportunity as the biggest gas sink for whatever gas is provided in the country.
“We have the capacity to receive that gas but, I think, by far the biggest opportunity is in Nigeria’s brand and reputation. Before NLNG, Nigeria was actually No. 2 on the undesired league of gas flaring nations in the world. But today, we are No. 7 ahead of other countries like the United States. I mean, United States is flaring more than Nigeria,” Attah added.
He stressed further that the company was spending about $120 million on the construction of Bonny-Bono road which will connect Bonny to Port Harcourt, slated for completion within 40 months.
Lending credence to the company’s assertions, Randoff Brown (PDP, Rivers) noted that, “NLNG is the most significant arrowhead of the Federal Government’s quest to eliminate gas flaring and derive value from the country’s 187 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves.
He added: “NLNG has covered about 119bcm or 4.2tcf of associated gas to export as LNG and natural gas liquids, thus helping to reduce gas flaring by upstream companies from over 60 percent to less than 25 percent.”
