President Goodluck Jonathan has commissioned a US$554.4m Uquo Gas plant facility in Esit Eket state and performed a ground breaking ceremony of the $1.5bn methanol plant at Ibeno.
During the events, President Jonathan recognized the private sector investments as the key to the country’s economy, and urged the nation not to exploit raw gas and crude oil only, but also engage in other useful resource exploitation to provide for more employment opportunities to the youths.
The president added that Nigeria has a vision of becoming the petrochemical hub for Africa. This is in view of the huge investment and establishment of more plants in the country. He said the government will, in every step, support the private sector contribution to boost the nation’s economy. Nigeria has massive gas potential that remains unexploited for both power generation and industrial use.
The Ibeno is promoted by Quantum Petrol Chemical Company Limited.
The Uquo gas plant facility was built by the Seven Energy International Limited and Frontier Oil joint venture. It made its first commercial gas deliveries to the 190MW Ibom Power station and 560MW Calabar NIPP power station early this year.
However, the Uquo gas plant is expected to feed over 10% of Nigeria’s power generation capacity by gas supply. At present, the company owner has secured 1.3 trillion cubic feet of long-term gas sales agreements for a period of between 10-20 years.
