NNPC delays completion of Seplat’s ANOH gas plant

The completion of Seplat Energy’s ANOH gas processing plant is being delayed by NNPC Gas Infrastructure Limited (NGIC), with production pushed to the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2023, Ripples Nigeria learnt.

According to checks on Seplat’s financial statement for the period of 2022, the company said the delay was due to a third party, which has yet to complete the infrastructure.

The 300 million standard cubic feet per day (MMscfd) ANOH Gas Processing Plant is located in Oil Mining Lease (OML) 53. It has two wells; ANOH-03 & ANOH-04.

Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) made the initial drilling in 2022, “but will not be completed until 2023 due to delays in the gas plant on-stream date,” a statement by the firm in its earnings report discloses.

Although Seplat said the third-party infrastructure will be completed in the second quarter (Q2) 2023, assurance of gas output is in the fourth quarter of this year.

NNPC Gas Infrastructure Limited pipeline network pressure is affecting offtake by Seplat customers downstream of Oben in Edo State after a Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) wall collapsed.

According to enbridge, Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) is a construction technique whereby a tunnel is drilled under a waterway or other designated area, and a pipeline or other utility is pulled through the drilled underground tunnel.

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Last year, Seplat in its 9-month 2022 financial statement disclosed that NGIC, its government partner, was delivering the pipelines that will take the gas from ANOH to Oben, namely the 23km spur line and the Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben (OB3) pipeline.

This was supposed to be completed in the first quarter (Q1) of this year, enabling Seplat to deliver gas from the ANOH plant in the first half (H1), however, the completion timeframe for the infrastructure has been pushed to Q2 and gas deliver from ANOH plant is now projected for the fourth quarter.

Part of the statement reads: “The OB3 pipeline has been affected by the collapsing of the HDD wall in a section of the river crossing. Experts from the UK have been brought in to ‘grout’ the section and grouting will commence in March with the drilling and pipe installation to commence thereafter. NGIC has confirmed that they expect the pipeline to be complete before the end of Q2 2023.”

“Line pipes for the 23km spur line are in country and project completion is almost 70%, with the revised completion date communicated by NGIC as 30 June 2023,” Seplat added.

However, Seplat is not betting its gas delivery on NNPC’s timeframe, Ripples Nigeria learnt, “Despite estimated completion for the pipeline infrastructure being Q2 2023, we have further risked the completion dates and have moved the first gas to the final quarter of 2023,” Seplat said.

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