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Hyderabad-based Nagarjuna Fertilizers and Chemicals Limited was among the companies that signed an agreement with the Nigerian Government for setting up petrochemical fertiliser plants in the country on Thursday.
As per the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), NFCL will team up with US oil major Chevron Nigeria Limited to construct five fertiliser blending factories in all the different geopolitical zones of the country.
Similarly, a Saudi Arabian firm, Xenel, will construct a world-scale petrochemical plant in the Koko Free Trade Zone (FTZ), Warri Delta State, with a capacity of about 1.3 million tonnes per annum.
The country, which wants to end gas flaring, has projected the creation of 500,000 jobs through an investment of $ 25 billion on the process. Out of this, the fertiliser initiative will cost $ 2.5 billion.
Furthermore, Oando Nigeria Plc and Italian oil giant Nigerian Agip Oil Company are to jointly build a $ 3 billion Central Gas Processing Facility (CPF) in the country.
All the firms signed the agreement with state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
President Mr Goodluck Jonathan said the gas project is an ambitious agenda of his Government to fast-track Nigeria’s industrial rebirth, which would see domestic gas supply rising to over 10 billion cubic feet per day by 2020 from the current level of 1 billion cubic feet per day, which is due to incessant flaring.
“Based on the agenda, it is our expectation that by 2014, we would have positioned Nigeria as the regional hub for gas-based industries of fertilisers, petrochemicals and methanol,” Mr Jonathan stated in Abuja, the country’s capital.
The World Bank blames Nigeria, Russia, Iran, Mexico, Venezuela, Indonesia and the United States for engaging in gas flaring, which contributes to the greenhouse effect.
The highest flaring occurs in the African country’s oil-rich Delta region, where many oil companies carry out exploration.
In 2008, the Government launched a Gas Master Plan which obligates oil companies to make available some percentage of their gas production in the domestic market for electricity generation and fertiliser production.
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