On June 24, 2009, as part of the official visit by Dmitry Medvedev, President of the Russian Federation to the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Gazprom and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation signed an Agreement on setting up a joint venture (JV) on a parity basis.

The JV is intended for executing large-scale projects in hydrocarbon exploration, production and transportation; construction and engineering of an associated gas gathering and processing system and building of power generation facilities in Nigeria.

Background:

Nigeria is one of the largest hydrocarbon feedstock producers in Africa. The country’s proven oil reserves exceed 9 billion tons (12th place in the world). In 2008 the oil output reached 103 million tons. Nigeria’s proven natural gas reserves account for 5.2 trillion cubic meters (7th place in the world).

Nigeria annually flares around 20 billion cubic meters of extracted associated gas. The Nigerian Government has repeatedly tried to terminate associated gas flaring.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is produced at the NLNG plant on the Bonny Island. Its production volume accounts for 22 million tons per annum. There are plans to construct extra capacity.