A new natural gas production company with capacity to produce 500 megawatts of electricity is expected to soon begin producing in the Logbaba, Douala Natural Gas Field. Making the disclosure in Yaounde on Wednesday November 24 after a meeting with the Minister of Industries, Mines and Technological Development, MINIMIDT, Badel Ndanga Ndinga, the Chairman of British-owned Victoria Oil and Gas, Kevin Foo, said that they were in the country “to advance discussions on the granting of a production licence and to seek MINIMIDT’s support as well as working with the National Hydrocarbons Corporation to expedite action on the matter.” He said the granting of the licence was needed for production to begin.
He said the company in two years of working in Cameroon had spent more than US $ 70 million (about FCFA 34 billion) on its activities and was eager to begin supplying its gas to local industries with which it has already signed contracts. The company was also interested in energy generation, he said. In this light, it has already imported pipes and other equipment to enable it lay the pipeline and supply gas to industrial customers in Douala. It had also begun discussions with Korean and Chinese power generation investors to whom his company could supply gas. He said his company would supply natural gas reliably at a cheaper rate.
When operational, the project is expected to produce 8 million cubic feet of gas per day; a figure which could quickly be upped to 40 million cubic feet a day, Kevin Foo assured. It will employ more than 100 workers during its construction phase and more than 150 others when operations begin. The project is expected to last more than 25 years. Apart from Logbaba, Victoria Oil and Gas intends in future to secure licences for oil and gas exploration in other parts of the country – on shore and off shore, assured its chairman. “The potential in Cameroon is quite spectacular. We are very glad to invest here because Douala is the hub of Central Africa – everything comes and goes through it; and the big industries in the sub region are in the city,” concluded Kevin Foo.
