Nigerian energy company Shoreline has signed a $300 million agreement with the local unit of Shell to develop gas infrastructure around the commercial capital, Lagos, both companies said yesterday.

Shell said in June that it would place more emphasis on gas rather than oil in the West African country, which has the world’s ninth-largest proven gas reserves at 187 trillion cubic feet.

Shoreline said the agreement was to develop, buy, market, distribute and sell natural gas in the Victoria Island, Ikoyi, Lekki and Epe districts, areas that contain the city’s business hub and some of the country’s most expensive residential properties.

It said the agreement provided exclusive rights to distribute and sell gas in those areas.

“The partnership is a significant boost to the gas supply efforts of the Federal and Lagos State governments and will deliver tangible benefits to companies and households in Lagos,” said Shoreline’s chairman, Kola Karim.

A spokesman for Shell’s Nigeria subsidiary, the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, said the company was “exploring a downstream gas opportunity” in partnership with Shoreline.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.