Tinubu assures Africa’s largest gas project completion

President Bola Tinubu says his administration will support Nigerian firm, UTM Floating Liquefied Natural Gas Limited, and its foreign partners for the timely actualisation of their gas project.

Speaking during a meeting with the management of the company and its foreign partners at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Wednesday, July 5, Tinubu pledged to remove all impediments to the timely completion of the facility.

The president also commended UTM FLNG Limited and its technical partners, Technip Energies of France, as well as its Japanese counterpart, JGC, for the initiative and partnership.

He said: “Yes, we have abundance of gas on the ground. However, the extractive industry needs the injection of your kind of partnership to be able to promote growth.

“It is a must for any government to support. Let me know if there are any bottlenecks, we will break them.”

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President Tinubu further applauded the conglomerate for the massive investment which, he said, would promote growth and protection of the environment.

On his part, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of UTM Offshore Limited, Julius Rone, said the project aligns with Tinubu’s promise to develop Nigerian gas resources as a source of sustainable energy and economic development for the country.

He said when the facility gets upstream by the Fourth Quarter of 2026, it would process 1.5 million metric tonnes of Liquefied Natural Gas for foreign market, and produce 300,000 metric tonnes of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) for domestic use.

Rone, who stated the company would cater for 25 percent of domestic demand for LPG, solicited Tinubu’s support to eliminate any encumbrances that may endanger the delivery of the project by the targeted date.

In her remarks, the French Ambassador to Nigeria, Emmanuelle Blatmann, described the project as a milestone, cementing the French presence in Nigeria’s economic space.

The facility, she said, would advance the economic diversification agenda of the Federal Government by tapping into the country’s abundant gas deposit.

When delivered, Blatmann said, the gas from Nigeria would be viable as an alternative source of gas for Europe.

The Star