The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has begun shipment of Liquefied Natural Gas cargoes to Japan and China on a Delivered Ex-Ship (DES) basis.

According to a statement by NNPC spokesman Olufemi Soneye, the downstream executive president of the national oil company, Segun Dapo, disclosed this on Monday.

Mr Dapo said the development aligned with the company’s strategic vision of being a reliable global energy supplier.

“Apart from being more financially rewarding, the DES system allowed NNPC Ltd. to inroad into the downstream segment of the LNG sector,” he said.

The DES is an international commercial term that requires the seller to deliver the products at a specific port. The seller takes responsibility for the shipping and insurance for the products until they reach the specified delivery port. It requires expertise and higher efficiency to execute than the free-on-board (FOB) system.

Mr Dapo said NNPC Ltd. achieved the milestone in collaboration with two downstream subsidiaries. He listed the subsidiaries as NNPC LNG Ltd and NNPC Shipping Ltd. The NNPC executive added that it delivered its first DES LNG cargo from the 174,000m³ LNG vessel Grazyna Gesicka at Futtsu, Japan, on June 27, 2024.

“Since then, it has expanded its footprint to China with the delivery of one LNG cargo on DES basis. NNPC Ltd. has been involved in LNG trading since 2021 with its first LNG cargo sale in November of that year. It has since traded over 20 cargoes into the European and Asian markets on FOB basis.

“It will position the NNPC Ltd. to capture more market shares while building in-house capacity and ensuring that global customers are familiar with the NNPC Ltd brand,” he said.

According to Mr Dapo, the collaboration between NNPC LNG Ltd. and NNPC Shipping Ltd. in executing the LNG supplies on a DES basis has strengthened the latter’s position as a world-class shipping provider in the LNG sector.

The managing director of NNPC Shipping, Mr Panos Gliatis, was also quoted as saying that NNPC Shipping intended to build a shipping portfolio (including owned vessels) to provide the sister company and other clients with all the shipping flexibilities they needed.

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. 

(NAN)