Page:Niger Delta Ecosystems- the ERA Handbook, 1998.djvu/159

The Resources of the Niger Delta: Minerals

A Mobil/NNPC joint venture project plans to start processing associated gas from the Oso Field (see map 5.) in 1998. The field produces about 40 million barrels of oil a year (5.5 million tonnes). Processing will involve separating the LPGs and then re-inject the "purified" methane back into the sandstone sponge.

A Chevron/NNPC joint venture planned for commencement in 1997 to process about 40% of the gas from the Escravos oil field which is currently flared. This will involve producing 1.6 billion cubic metres of methane annually for use in Nigerian power station or for export to neighbouring countries, and an as yet unknown quantity of LPGs.

The most valuable processing option in terms of producing an exportable product, involves piping gas to coastal liquefaction plants for bottling for local use and for export elsewhere. This option is being realised at Oso and Escravos. However the most ambitious project is being undertaken by the Nigeria LNG Ltd, a US$3.8 billion joint venture of NNPC (49%), Shell (26.5%), Elf (15%) and Agip (10.4%). This involves piping natural gas, via a 219km Gas Transmission System from three Gas Treatment Stations to a liquefaction plant at Finima on Bonny Island (see map 3B).

Initially all the gas was to have been non-associated, but international pressure to reduce gas flaring in the Niger Delta induced the SPDC particularly to include associated gas, so that the present project design should be able to use about 10% of the associated gas that is presently flared. Future developments (such as an installation to remove ethane from the associated gas could raise this figure).

The gas treatment stations are at Soku (53.33%), operated by SPDC, at Obrike (23.33%) operated by the Nigerian Agip Oil Company and at Obite (23.33%) operated by Elf Petroleum Nigeria Ltd.

The project should be able to liquefy 8.8 billion m3 of natural gas annually by 1999 producing 5.8 tonnes of LNG. Most of this will be supplied, under 20 year contracts, to Enel of Italy (65%), Enagas of Spain, Gaz de France and Botas of Turkey.

Already the Kolo Creek gas turbine plant and the electricity distribution infrastructure associated with it provides communities along the Kolo and Ekole Creeks with electricity and is a good example of what can be done elsewhere. Also gas will be used to fuel the Aluminium Smelter for Aluminium Smelting Company at Ikot Obassi in Akwa Ibom State and the steel-smelting mill at Ajaokuta.

14.7 SAND

Although exploited on a much less dramatic scale than oil and gas, sand is the next most important mineral extracted from the Niger Delta. It is used for land reclamation, for making concrete and cement blocks, and as the raw material for glass production at Ughelli. Most comes from riverbeds in the Fresh-water ecozone, and also, to a lesser extent, from the Lowland Equatorial Monsoon and Sand-barrier Island ecozones.

Sand is extracted either industrially by dredgers or by hand. The hand method is confined to shallow waters because the sand is dug off the riverbed and carried to the surface in buckets where it is loaded into canoes. 157