16-07-08 France's Total hopes it’s planned Brass LNG project in Nigeria can contribute to stability in the country by bringing economic benefits, a Total official said.
"To develop a project in an economically deprived area, there is nothing people can do over there, there is no job, and there is no industry. When you build an LNG plant you generate a zone of wealth around because you induce a number of activities," Gerard Urier, Total E&P vice president for Africa LNG, told. "When people are happy with their living, with what they have, they are not going to fight, and then they are even going to protect you against those who are going to try and destabilize you," he said on the sidelines of the 3rd Annual LNG World conference in Tokyo.

Oil companies have been the target of attacks by militants demanding control of oil resources in the Niger Delta. The attacks on the oil-producing region's infrastructure have shut in 40 % of the country's oil output.
Total is one of the partners in Brass LNG, a two-train, 10 mm tpy LNG plant to be located near the Brass crude terminal, which was the target of militant attacks last year. The other project partners are state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, ConocoPhillips, Total and ENI.

No plans to withdraw from Nigeria
Urier reiterated that Total had no plans to withdraw from Nigerian projects despite the continuing attacks.
"It is an integral part [at] Total to be capable to work in difficult environment in all senses of the term," Urier said. Total CEO Christophe de Margerie in June warned that a total pullout of all foreign operators in Nigeria could push record oil prices even higher.

A final investment decision for Brass LNG has been delayed by repeated militant attacks and kidnappings near the site at Brass in the southern Bayelsa state. The project's current schedule sees the first LNG shipment in the first quarter of 2013, a time frame Urier said was "reasonable." The partners are continuing to work towards a final investmentdecision, he said.
"It is progressive, at the end of 2008 we will have spent probably more than $ 500 mm all together, and we are continuing," he added.

When asked about the Nigerian government's policy of favouring supply of natural gas to the domestic market over exports, Urier said it was important for gas producers and the government to coordinate the country's vast gas resources together.
"It is a matter of establishing together, and together I mean all the major gas producers in the country and the government, a gas master plan," the Total official said. "There is no lack of reserves in Nigeria today, there is still more exploration to be done on top of existing proven reserves," he added.