Shell to direct future investments in Nigeria on gas

Shell to direct future investments in Nigeria on gas – MD

Osagie Okunbor, Chairman, Shell Companies in Nigeria and Managing Director of the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC)

Reuters – Shell will focus its future investments in Nigeria on natural gas for domestic consumption and export, the managing director of the oil major’s joint venture in the country said on Wednesday.

“Our strategy is to invest a lot more in gas, for domestic consumption and export. We want to grow our deep water and constrain our onshore oil production,” Osagie Okunbor told reporters in Port Harcourt, the country’s oil hub.

Shell has been divesting onshore oil-producing assets for the last few years and completed another set near the end of March.

The sales are part of an effort to move away from onshore oil projects in Nigeria, which are plagued by industrial scale theft, security problems and pipeline spills, which have become a growing legal liability.

Okunbor added that Shell’s flagship project would be the Gbaran-Ubie project, which will increase gas supplies for the Bonny liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal. A first phase began production in 2010.