Gas company vows to meet delivery date, despite riots

Management at Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited has said it would meet delivery dates to its customers in Europe despite this week's demonstrations by communities in the southeastern Bonny producing area, news reports said.

"We are producing six thousand tonnes of LNG per day into a tank and producing at a rate to meet our deadline," Abba Gana, company deputy managing director, said.

However, the Lagos daily newspaper, `The Guardian', reported him as saying production may be hampered if access to nine water wells supplying the liquefaction process were not guaranteed.

Concern about possible disruption of operations have surfaced as a result of riots by youths of the Bonny community. The riots began on Monday when youths stormed the access road between the plant and staff residential quarters at Bonny. The protesters demanded implementation of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for jobs and social amenities, AFP reported.

However, `The Guardian said' Gana said the community had failed to meet its obligations under the MOU. For example, he said the company had planned to spend US $6.5 million in water and road projects but the community had failed to provide the land.

The disturbances had raised fears that the US $3.8 billion plant would be unable to begin shipments of liquefied gas to its five European buyers by 1 October, the newspaper said. It listed the companies as ENEL of Italy, ENAGAS of Spain, BOTAS of Turkey, GAZ of France and TRANSGAS of Portugal.