Brass LNG Terminal

This article is part of the Global Fossil Infrastructure Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor.

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Brass LNG Terminal was a proposed LNG terminal in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. The project had been cancelled, but in 2022 Nigeria's government indicated it was looking to revive the project.

Location

The map below shows the location of the town of Twon-Brass, the approximate location where the terminal would be located, in Bayelsa state.

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Project details

• Owner: Brass LNG Ltd
• Parent: Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (49%), ConocoPhillips (17%), TotalEnergies (17%), and Eni SpA (17%)
• Location: Twon-Brass, Bayelsa State, Nigeria
• Coordinates: 4.31, 6.246 (approximate)
• Type: Export
• Trains: 2
• Capacity: 10 mtpa, 1.43 bcfd (5 mtpa per train)
• Status: Proposed
• Start Year:

Note: mtpa = million tonnes per year; bcfd = billion cubic feet per day

Background

In October 2003, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), U.S. firms Chevron and ConocoPhillips, and Italian firm Eni signed an agreement to create Brass LNG Limited. In November 2004, Brass LNG Limited awarded a construction contract to Bechtel to build a two-train, 10 million metric tons per year (mtpa) liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Nigeria's Bayelsa state. The plan was for construction to begin in Q3 2006.

Since then, a number of different companies have rotated in & out of the project. Chevron left in 2006, while Total joined in 2008. ConocoPhillips pulled out of the project in 2014, as part of their overall withdrawal from Nigeria — leaving NNPC, Eni, and Total as the participating companies.

Originally, the project was supposed to cost around $8.5 billion. However, some officials put the cost upward between $15 billion and $20 billion.

In January 2017, after lying dormant for years, the project was rekindled following a meeting in London. $1 billion had already been spent on the project as of that date, but no final investment decision (FID) had been signed. As of March 2017, the project's sponsors needed to find a new company to take on ConocoPhillips's share. In June 2017, NNPC said that the project's sponsors were trying to redesign the project and find a market for the LNG; these tasks would need to be completed before an FID could be signed.

As of June 15, Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State, who campaigned on a platform of bringing development and investment to the region, is trying to move forward with the proposed Brass LNG plans by working with the Federal government to expedite the process.

According to the International Gas Union’s World LNG 2017 report, Nigeria was the fourth largest LNG exporter by share after Qatar, Australia, and Malaysia between 2015 and 2016.

Since its re-announcement in 2017, the project has been stalled by a lack of final investment. The project was to be built by the NNPC, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Eni Group, but ConocoPhillips and Chevron have since withdrawn from the project.

In April 2022, Nigeria's government indicated that it was looking to revive the project.

In November 2023, NNPC said that it was in conversations with offshore investors to revive two old projects: Brass LNG Terminal and Olokola LNG Terminal.