Uquo JV: Boosting Nigeria’s Economy with Gas Supply

Dada Thomas, CEO, Frontier Oil (Middle) explains
a point to President Goodluck Jonathan (2nd left)
while Philip Ihenacho, CEO Seven Energy (left);
Godswill Akpabio, Governor of Akwa Ibom State;
 and Diezani Allison-Madueke, Minister of Petroleum
 look on during the commissioning of the
Uquo JV's Gas Processing Facility in Esit Eket,
 Akwa Ibom State recently.

The journey of the Uquo Gas Processing Facility Plant started in 2003 when the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) awarded the Uquo Marginal Field to Frontier Oil Limited as part of the Federal Government’s Marginal Field Programme aimed at increasing reserves, production, employment, local content and indigenous participation in the upstream oil and gas business. Uquo Field, located in OML13, onshore Akwa Ibom State, was among the 24 marginal fields that were awarded to indigenous companies in that maiden edition.

After spending a rigorous period of building the field, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, on Thursday, August 14 finally crowned their efforts by officially commissioning the Uquo Gas Processing Facility Plant in Esit Eket, as part of the activities to mark his state visit.

Engineer Dada Thomas, the Chief Executive Officer of Frontier Oil Limited, the operators of the Uquo JV, explained some of the hurdles the JV had to cross as it became evident that the field is more of a gas field. “Having a gas field in 2003/2004 was a disaster because nobody wanted gas. I used to go round the world to talk about gas but people threw me out because they didn’t want to hear about it”.

The JV was undaunted as it knew gas would be the way to unlocking the economic potential of this nation. The Uquo Gas plant is one of the biggest projects of its nature undertaken by independent indigenous partners in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Uquo JV has commissioned the Trains 1 & 2 of the Uquo Gas Processing Facility that will be supplying gas to both the Ibom Power Plant and the Calabar National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) power station.

“Today’s commissioning is the beginning of a gas value chain that will affect the lives of Nigerians and boost the nation’s economy. With an added 1,000 megawatts of electricity to our national grid, our production capabilities are bound to expand, increasing the size and breath of our economy,” Thomas said.

He continued, “This means that the hairdresser can do her hairdressing, the welder can do his welding, and the factory can carry on production. It means that the people in the office can function because their computers will have power and all those things have an impact on the ability of each individual to produce optimally”.

In his remarks, Phillip Ihenacho, Chief Executive Officer of Seven Energy, provider of technical support and financier of the project, stated that Seven Energy expended over 600 million US Dollars (N90 billion) in building both the pipeline infrastructure and the plant. “The gas plant will supply gas to the Ibom Power Plant and the 540 Megawatts Capacity Calabar Power Station which was built under the National Integration Power Project (NIPP)”, he said.

Ihenacho added that there is a huge increase in the demand for gas in Nigeria, with the multiplication of the number of thermal power stations in the country which came with the recent liberalization in the power sector. He added that the project would boost power generation in the country and generate ample employment opportunities for Nigerians.

The Gas plant promises to increase the country’s power generating capacity by up to 10 per cent and this means that we would be hopeful that some of the companies that moved their production arms out to neighbouring countries due to power challenges in the country, and other companies that have no plants in Nigeria, will in no distant time consider building new plants in Nigeria. When this is achieved, our GDP will rise, alongside the standard of living, unemployment and other social vices will reduce.