Team JKS scores with $1.7 billion contract

recently announced that its Nigerian subsidiary has awarded the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract worth $1.7 billion for the Escravos gas-to-liquids (EGTL) project in Nigeria.

The owners of EGTL, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), with 25 percent equity, and Chevron Nigeria (CNL), a subsidiary of ChevronTexaco with 75 percent equity, awarded the EPC contracts to Team JKS, a consortium composed of JGC Corporation of Japan, KBR and Snamprogretti.

"This is a significant step in ChevronTexaco's strategy to grow an integrated global gas business using GTL and liquefied natural gas technologies to commercialise our gas resources and to develop the entire gas value chain," said George Kirkland, ChevronTexaco executive vice president of Upstream and Gas.

John Watson, president of ChevronTexaco Overseas Petroleum, added, "EGTL will help to further unlock the commercial and strategic value of Nigeria's vast natural gas resources for the benefit of the country, its people and the EGTL co-venturers.”

Sasol Chevron, a 50/50 global joint venture between Sasol and ChevronTexaco, will provide technical support and will be the single-point licensor for the project.

The EGTL site is located approximately 60 miles southeast of Lagos and is expected to produce 34,000 barrels per day of GTL diesel, GTL naphtha and a small amount of liquefied petroleum gas.

EGTL will combine advanced hydroprocessing technology developed by ChevronTexaco with the Slurry Phase Distillate(TM) (SPD) process owned by Sasol of South Africa, which also is providing risk-based financing for the project.

The Escravos Gas Project Phase 3 (EGP-3), consisting of onshore and offshore facilities, is expected to provide approximately 300 million standard cubic feet of natural gas per day in feedstock for the EGTL project. NNPC's equity participation in EGP-3 is 60 percent, and CNL holds 40 percent.