A Nigerian-based firm Riverside LNG has recently disclosed that the company is in advance talk to supply gas to South Africa based firm Johannes Schuetze Energy Import AG of Germany. The gas pact deal is believed to be a first of its kind between the two countries. The company is also exploring opportunities in Liberia and Cameroon.

In an interview with Bloomberg, David Ige, a former executive at the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC, Limited and Chief Executive Officer of Riverside LNG made this milestone disclosure to the global energy media space without given further details on gas deal with South African counterparts, citing confidentiality clauses.

According to Mr. Ige the company has earlier this year signed a gas-export partnership agreement with Johannes Schuetze Energy Import AG of Germany and the company currently exploring further continental opportunities especially in Liberia and Cameroon.

 “We’d probably very early in the year close out another segment of the market, an off-take for South Africa. There’s a massively evolving gas market in the region, anything around 3,000 nautical miles of Nigeria. So that covers southern Africa, western Africa, all to northwest Europe and the Caribbean and South America broadly,” Mr, Ige Posited

Ige sighted lack of South Africa infrastructural facility to receive LNG as an obstacle to timely project delivery as the project won’t start until 2027 “so there’s enough time for import terminal infrastructure”.

According to Bloomberg, A southern African bloc of nations backed a $17 billion natural gas infrastructure plan to bolster energy supplies on a continent where almost half of the population lacks access to power.

Mr, Ige keyed into a recent resolution made by a 16-member Southern African Development Community that approved the blueprint to invest in infrastructure such as pipelines and terminals for local and imported supplies. While not yet a major source of gas, the bloc is home to some significant discoveries with projects in various stages in Mozambique, Tanzania and South Africa.

“A lot of those countries are looking to go gas, we see a huge opportunity for Nigeria in being a trading hub,” Ige Posited.

Recently in November at the 10th German-Nigerian Business Forum, in Berlin, Germany, President Bola Tinubu witnessed the signing of two Memoranda of Understanding (MoU): one on the supply of gas from Nigeria to Germany and another for $500 million worth of renewable energy projects in Nigeria. 

The signing of MoUs was between Riverside LNG of Nigeria and Johannes Schuetze Energy Import AG of Germany on the gas export partnership, while the other signed pact brought together Union Bank of Nigeria and DWS Group on cooperation in renewable energy. 

CEO of GasInvest, Mr. David Ige, who signed the MoU on gas supply, said the Riverside LNG project aims to supply energy from Nigeria to Germany, extinguishing about 50 million cubic feet per day of flared gas in Nigeria. 

”The project will supply energy from Nigeria to Germany at 850,000 tonnes per annum, expanding to 1.2 million tonnes per annum. The first gas will leave Nigeria for Germany in 2026, and there will be further expansion. This will extinguish about 50 million cubic feet per day of flared gas in Nigeria and open alleyways of new and greater exports of gas to Germany,’’ he said.

The German partners expressed confidence in investing in Nigeria’s gas sector. Chief Operating Officer of Johannes Schuetze Energy Import AG, Mr. Frank Otto described the partnership as a “big deal” for the German market.