Leading energy company, The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) and its joint venture partners – Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPC), Totalenergies EP Nigeria Limited, and Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) – on Wednesday signed an agreement for a daily supply of 70 million standard cubic feet of gas to Dangote Fertiliser Company to boost production and for local and export purposes.
SPDC’s Managing Director, and Country Chair, Shell Companies in Nigeria, Osagie Okunbor, described the agreement as a significant step in supporting the Nigerian government’s agriculture policy for food security. “Dangote Fertiliser Limited currently produces the bulk of Nigeria’s fertilizer and this agreement will greatly enable the company’s capacity.”
Dangote Fertiliser Company boasts Africa’s largest granulated urea fertilizer complex and produces around 65 percent of Nigeria’s domestic fertilizer requirements.
Also speaking at the signing ceremony held as a key highlight of the ongoing 5th edition of the Nigerian International Energy Summit in Nigeria’s federal capital city of Abuja, NNPC’s Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kolo Kyari; Mele Kyari, general manager of NNPC, said the agreement would accelerate Nigeria’s journey to self-sufficiency in fertilizer production.
Kyari said, “It’s the government’s drive to ensure that we become self-sufficient in the production of fertilizer in our country, and specifically for this year, it’s zero import of fertilizer into our country.”
President and Chief Executive, Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, who signed the agreement on behalf of the company said the additional gas supply would ‘help us bring in more foreign exchange to Nigeria and confirm Nigeria’s position as the continent’s second-largest producer of fertilizer’.