The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) and its joint venture partners have signed an agreement with Dangote Fertiliser Company for the daily supply of 70 million standard cubic feet of gas to boost the company’s fertilizer production and for local and export purposes.
The joint venture partners of Shell are the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, NNPC, Totalenergies EP Nigeria Limited, and Nigerian Agip Oil Company, NAOC.
Speaking at the signing ceremony on Wednesday in Abuja, the SPDC’s Managing Director, and country Chair, Shell Companies in Nigeria, Mr. 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 fertiliser and this agreement will greatly enable the company’s capacity.”
Dangote Fertiliser Company boasts Africa’s largest granulated urea fertiliser complex and produces around 65 percent of of Nigeria’s domestic fertiliser requirements.
In his remarks, the CEO of the NNPC Ltd, Mr. Mele Kolo Kyari, said that the agreement would accelerate Nigeria’s journey to self-sufficiency in fertiliser production.
“It is government’s drive to ensure that we become self-sufficient in the production of fertiliser in our country, and specifically for this year, it’s zero import of fertiliser into our country,” local media reports on Thursday quoted Kyari as saying.
The reports said that Aliko Dangote, President and Chief Executive of Dangote Group, who signed the agreement on behalf of the company, said that 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”.
GIK/APA