Nigeria's Seplat Raises $260mn for Anoh Plant
Nigeria's Seplat Petroleum has raised $260mn in debt to complete a 300mn ft3/day gas processing plant at the OML 53 block in the country's Imo state, the London-listed company said in a statement on February 1.
Seplat is building the Assa North-Ohaji South (Anoh) plant in partnership with state-owned NNPC. The pair earlier provided $420mn in equity funding and with the debt raised, the project is now fully funded, Seplat said.
The latest funding was provided by a consortium of IBTC Bank, United Bank for Africa, Zenith Bank, FirstRand Bank, Mauritius Commercial Bank, Union Bank of Nigeria and FCMB Capital Markets. A further $60mn can be released when the plant is completed to reimburse equity costs.
Anoh is one of Nigeria's flagship gas projects. It will handle unutilised gas at oilfields in the Seplat-operated OML 53 block and the Shell-run OML 21 block. This gas will be used for power generation, replacing small-scale diesel plants in the region that are both costlier and dirtier to run. It will meet the electricity needs of 5mn people, according to Seplat.
The project's original budget was $700mn, but Seplat now expects expenses to be no more than $650mn, following cost optimisation work, the company said.
Nigeria is working to monetise more of its gas resources, estimated at 200 trillion ft3 proven. As part of this push, NNPC on January 29 took a final investment decision on what will be the country's methanol production plant, carrying a $3bn price tag.