Shell Gas project in Nigeria launched

[Steve Kretzmann <steve@moles.org>]

  from Nigeria Today 9/14:
  
  SHELL  LAUNCHES GAS PROJECT
  Oil giant Shell has launched a gas gathering project, the first in a series
  planned to eliminate flaring by 2008, a senior company official said.  "We
  have commenced work on the gas gathering project in the Western Division
  which was approved for implementation early in the year," Chris Haynes,
  technical manager of Shell Development Company of Nigeria, told visiting
  reporters.  The project, located in Odidi, near Warri, is expected to cost
  $250 million and to collect 80 million cubic feet of gas per day for supply
  to customers in the Lagos area, he said.  "We have planned that the plant
  comes on stream in 1999. The gas collected will be injected into the
  Escravos-Lagos pipeline for supply and distribution by the Nigerian Gas
  Company."  The Nigerian Gas Company is a subsidiary of National Petroleum
  Corp (NNPC).  Haynes said the Odidi project would gather gas flared only in
  the Western Division. "This is because much of the gas flared in our
  Eastern Division will be routed to the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas plant
  once that comes on stream also in 1999."  Nigeria is constructing an LNG
  plant in Bonny, near  Port Harcourt.  On completion, the LNG plant is
  expected to reduce by 20 percent the volume of gas being flared by Shell. 
  Gas flaring is a sensitive issue in Nigeria, where communities in
  oil-producing areas constantly accuse multinational firms of environmental
  pollution.  The LNG project faced boycott threats following local and
  international pressure on Shell, the technical leader, to pull out in
  protest over Nigeria's hanging last year of the Ogoni nine.  But Shell
  weathered the pressure to begin construction of the LNG plant in March,
  which is expected to produce 7.2 billion cubic metres of gas per year. 
  Haynes said apart from the Odidi project, other plans were being discussed
  between Shell and their partners which would  involve an optimum use of gas
  to reduce flaring.  Shell said the replacement programme for its swamp and
  land flowlines was on course and nearing completion. Haynes,  said  "We
  started with the replacement programme of the swamp flowlines here in 1992
  and our objective is to complete it by the end of this year".     Shell
  policy is to replace all flowlines that are more than 15 years old and to
  bury underground existing and future land flowlines.  Burying the flowlines
  would make them less susceptible to sabotage by aggrieved residents of the
  oil-producing areas. Chevron Corp  is also executing a gas gathering
  project in Escravos, near Warri. It involves gathering and processing 96
  percent of the gas now being flared in the Escravos area.  The first phase
  of the Chevron gas project, involving the processing of about 150 million
  cubic feet of associated gas per day, is expected to come on stream in May
  1997 at a cost of $569m.
  _________________________
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  Steve Kretzmann
  
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  510-705-8983 - fax
  
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