LISBON — Portugal may face supply problems this winter if Nigeria delivers all the liquefied grass (LNG) fuel it owes, the European Union country’s environment and energy minister said Monday.
Asked whether, with many countries looking for opportunities for Russian gas, there is a possibility that Nigeria will not meet its LNG source volumes, Duarte Cordeiro said that if the government had given assurances to Lisbon that it would, “there is a threat that this would not comply. “
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“From one day to the next, we would possibly have a problem, such as not receiving the expected volume of gas,” Cordeiro told a convention in Lisbon organized via CNN Portugal.
Cordeiro did not specify what Nigeria would save the supply of the LNG for which it is under contract.
Oil and fuel production in Nigeria has been strangled by pipeline theft and vandalism, leaving fuel manufacturer Nigeria LNG Ltd’s Bonny Island terminal operating at 60% capacity.
Nigeria LNG, which is owned by state-owned oil company NNPC Ltd, Shell, TotalEnergies and Eni, did not respond to a request for comment.
Although Portugal has its fuel reserves at one hundred percent of its garage capacity, Cordeiro said that if fewer LNG deliveries materialize from Nigeria, it will have to look for select supplies.
With other European countries doing the same, this would likely lead to higher costs for imported gas, he said.
Last year, Portugal imported 2. 8 billion cubic meters of LNG from Nigeria, accounting for 49. 5% of total imports, while the United States was the second largest supplier with a share of 33. 3%.
Its other suppliers are Trinidad and Tobago, Algeria, Qatar and Russia, the latter up 2% last year.
Portugal is “diversifying its suppliers to build the country’s energy security,” Cordeiro said, adding that it is adopting methods for fuel consumption, while expanding its production of electric power from renewables.
“Portugal has prepared, like the whole of Europe, for what will be a complicated winter,” he said, urging the European Commission to press ahead with the status quo of a non-unusual fuel buying platform and the definition of import prices. Sergio Goncalves; Editing through Alexander Smith)
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