The Final Investment De
cision (FID) of the multi-billion dollar gas project, Brass Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Limited, may suffer further delay as one of its key shareholders, Conoco Phillips (COP), has rescheduled its final exit from the company to March 2014.
An American oil firm, Conoco Phillips whose global business focus and strategy got some re-engineering last year had unveiled it departure plan from Nigeria and particularly the Brass LNG project to enable it pursue other business interests.
Investigation on the company’s protracted exit revealed that contrary to the earlier envisioned exit from the project, latest the last quarter of this year, the company had now extended its final departure date to March next year.
A source close to the company told newsmen that the delay of Conoco Phillips was hurting the Brass LNG project. “But since their announcement that they were going, they have decided to have one of their legs inside the Brass LNG Ltd and the other outside.”
“Their posture is not adding any more value to the project because it is slowing down would be investors from indicating interest. The latest information is that the Conoco Phillips had told the board of the Brass LNG that it does not intend to conclude their exit process before March 2014. This is massively hurting the project because until they leave the project, their presence will continue to negatively impact it”, he said.
Largely seen at inception as a child of necessity, the Brass LNG Limited, he added, has now become a gas company that has attained a level of national strategic importance.
At its Annual General Meeting  (AGM) held in July this year, the chairman of the company’s Board of Directors Dr Jackson Gaius-Obaseki had told the stakeholders that “in my address to the AGM last year, you may recall that I expressed the view that the final investment decision for the Brass LNG project was possible within year 2013 with the full commitment and unwavering efforts of all the project participants.
According to him, at that point it was not envisaged that the COP exit through the announced sale of their shareholding with its dampening effect on morale and confidence will be protracted”.
It was learnt that privy to the meeting that the shareholders expressed concern over what they called the protracted exit of Conoco Phillips from the project as well as the current attitude of their licensing group, the shareholders it was further gathered also insisted  that there were steps to be taken urgently to protect the interest of investors, LNG buyers as well as ensure maximum benefits to Nigerians and the government.
The meeting had in attendance, the chairman of Total Nigeria Limited Mr Jacqaue De Marraud, chairman of Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC) Mr. Roberto Casulla, chairman of Brass LNG Limited Dr Gaius-Obaseki and the Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr Andrew Yakubu.