(Ecofin Agency) - Indigenous oil and gas company, Southfield Petroleum Limited, has signed an Equipment, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract with China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) to build a 250 million standard cubic feet per day gas processing facility in Nigeria. The project, which is worth $198 million, has been planned for completion by 2018 and is expected to be sponsored by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC).

According to Southfield, the EPC contract also includes the construction of other facilities like a captive Jetty, 24 Mega Watts captive power, a 14,000metric tonnes Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) storage facility, 3,000 metric tonnes LPG barge, office buildings, infrastructure, the construction of an Amine Unit to extract the Carbon Dioxide from the gas as well as a robust training programme for Nigerians.

“The facilities will be operational at the Utorogu gas field by second quarter of 2018 and will have an annual production of 200,000MT of LPG. The facility will be initially operated by CMEC while Nigerians are being trained to ensure technology transfer and capacity development,” the company told the Guardian news.

Anita Fatunji