The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd.) has commenced shipment of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) cargoes to Japan and China.
In a statement on Monday by the NNPC Ltd. Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Olufemi Soneye, the company said the milestone was achieved through the collaboration of two of its downstream subsidiaries, the NNPC LNG Ltd. and NNPC Shipping Ltd.
According to the statement, the NNPC Shipping Ltd. delivered its first DES LNG cargo from the 174,000m³ LNG vessel, Grazyna Gesicka at Futtsu, Japan, on June 27, 2024.
The shipments, executed on a Delivered Ex-Ship (DES) basis, is in line with the company’s strategic vision to be a dynamic and reliable global energy supplier of choice.
Mr Soneye explained that “Delivered Ex-Ship (DES) is an international commercial term that requires the seller to deliver the products/goods at a specific port.
“The seller takes responsibility for the shipping and insurance for the products/goods until they get to the specified port of delivery. It requires expertise and a higher level of efficiency to execute than the Free on Board (FOB) system,” he added.
Since the delivery to Japan on June 27, NNPC said that it has also expanded its footprint to China with the delivery of one LNG cargo on the same DES basis.
Executive Vice President, Downstream, Mr Dapo Segun, said apart from being more financially rewarding, the DES system “allows NNPC Ltd. inroads into the downstream segment of the LNG sector and positions it to capture more market shares while building in-house capacity and ensuring that global customers are familiar with the NNPC Ltd. brand.”
Prior to Japan and China, the company said it has been involved in LNG trading since 2021 with its first LNG cargo sale in November of that year, and has since traded over 20 cargoes into the European and Asian markets on FOB basis.
Going forward, Managing Director of NNPC Shipping, Panos Gliatis, noted that “NNPC Shipping intends to build a shipping portfolio (including owned vessels) so that we can provide our sister company and other clients all the shipping flexibilities they need.”
NNPC LNG Ltd., in collaboration with NNPC Shipping Ltd, is scheduled to deliver at least two more LNG cargoes to the Asian market on DES basis by November. More orders are expected before the end of year, the company added in the statement.
