Managing Director of Nigeria LNG Limited, Mr. Tony Attah, has challenged Nigeria to rise and unleash her enormous gas potential for the benefit of the country and her people. He threw the challenge on Wednesday during the public presentation of the “Facts and Figures on NLNG 2017”, a compendium of the NLNG business.
Mr. Attah declared that there is no better way of unleashing the country’s gas potential than by giving NLNG the needed support to actualise its Trains 7 and 8 projects, which have been on the drawing board for quite a while.
“This is the time for gas. It is time for Nigeria to unleash the gas potential and this we can do through Trains 7 and 8. These two projects will create about 18,000 jobs and help to check the restiveness in the Niger Delta. Nigeria will never be the same again with these two projects,” Attah said.
He, however, noted that for this to happen, the NLNG Act must not be amended as being proposed by some federal lawmakers. “We are against the proposed amendment of the NLNG Act; the Act should be left alone for us to actualise Trains 7 and 8,” he said.
Attah dismissed rumours in some quarters that Nigeria LNG would fold up in about four to five years. “We are a going concern,” he said. “We are here to stay for good.” He noted that those behind the rumours only misinterpreted a report that some of NLNG’s earliest contracts would run out in four to five years and reassured that “as long as we have volume, there is a market.”
The NLNG CEO also spoke about the company’s lofty vision to make its host community, Bonny in Rivers State, a replica of Dubai. “Our vision for Bonny is a mini Dubai in the next 25 years. Everything is set for the signing of the MoU in the next few months. I personally believe that as a company we can transform this community,” he stated.
The event, held at Sheraton Hotel & Towers, Ikeja Lagos, was attended by some other NLNG chiefs, among them Deputy Managing Director, Sadeeq Mai-Bornu; General Manager, External Relations, Kudo Eresia-Eke, and Finance General Manager, Solomon Folaranmi.