Air Pollution: NLNG Earns N36tn from Flare Gas Monetisation

Ahead of the 2019 World Environment Day (WED) celebration, which amplifies the clamour for players in the petroleum industry to curb the rising level of global air pollution, Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited has declared over $100 billion or N36 trillion gross income from gas monetisation.

The Managing Director of the company, Mr. Tony Attah, who spoke on the company’s 20 years of operations, said that NLNG has over two decades delivered economic, environmental, commercial and social dividends to the Nigerian people.

He said the company had converted over 6.37 trillion cubic feet of associated gas to Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs) in the past 20 years, thus helping to cut gas flares in the country from over 60 percent in 1999 to less than 20 percent.

Attah stated that apart from capturing flared gas for monetisation, the company has also delivered immeasurable financial returns to asset holders, operators and sundry stakeholders.

From the monetisation of gas hitherto being flared, he said NLNG has generated over $100 billion revenue since inception and paid over $36 billion (N12.96 trillion) to shareholders as dividends.

Attah explained that $17.64 billion (N6.35 trillion) of the total dividends went to federal government through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) which holds overriding 49 percent equity interest in NLNG under an incorporated joint venture with Shell, Total and Eni.

He added that another $16.464 billion (N6.0 trillion) out of the $28 billion (N10.08 trillion) used in buying the feed gas from upstream oil production sites was also paid to government which holds average of 58.8 percent stake in the three joint ventures that supply feed gas to the liquefaction company.

Attah stated that NLNG is the biggest tax payer in Africa with over $40.47 billion or N14.6 trillion in revenues to the government in the past 19 years, adding that the company paid government about $864 million in incremental company income tax (CIT) alone in 2018.

Other payments declared by the company include employee income tax, state and local government taxes as well as regulators’ levies and fees totaling over N60 billion.

Beyond dividends, taxes and gas purchase values, he pointed out that the company has also voluntarily committed to about N222 billion social responsibility projects in Nigeria, especially in rural communities.

In providing details of the company’s corporate social responsibility in the country, he counted that NLNG has spent over N25 billion on community projects over the years; over N2.0 billion in building world-class engineering laboratories in six Nigerian universities under its University Support Programme, and another N63 billion in counterpart funding for the construction of Bonny-Bodo road in Rivers State.