Nigeria LNG Limited began receiving natural gas production from one of Royal Dutch Shell’s feeder plants this week after being shutdown for nearly four months, a company spokeswoman said on Tuesday.
Shell declared force majeure in November on its gas supplies to Nigeria LNG, which supplies 10 percent of world liquefied natural gas, after thieves tapping into pipelines forced it to shut down its Soku gas plant for repairs.
‘Gas production started yesterday and is ramping up quickly. I would say it’s at around 65 percent capacity now,’ said Siene Allwell-Brown, spokeswoman for Nigeria LNG.
She said force majeure, which frees the company from its contractual obligations, was still in place for its LNG shipments.
LNG is gas cooled to liquid form and shipped in special tankers to markets in the developed world — particularly Europe and the United States — where it can be used for power generation or for making chemicals.
Nigeria LNG, which exports 22 million tonnes per year of compressed gas, is controlled by a group of