Abuja — Four American oil companies Friday teamed up with the Nigerian government to conduct a feasibility study for the establishment of an LNG plant, which would be Nigeria's second.

Chevron Nigeria Limited, Conoco Energy Nigeria Limited, ExxonMobil, and Texaco Overseas Petroleum Company of Nigeria Unlimited, all subsidiaries of American companies, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Federal Government of Nigeria for a study of gas resources in the western part of the Niger Delta, home of Nigeria's oil and gas resources.

The study is expected to completed within 12 months, and will be led by Conoco, which is said to have undertaken a study of Nigeria's gas deposits.

Speaking on the occasion, Rilwanu Lukman, former Secretary General of the OPEC, and Presidential Adviser on Energy and Petroleum Resources, said the Nigerian government was determined to monetize the country's associated and non-associated gas.

To achieve this, he said consideration must be given to large volume commercialisation through expansion of existing LNG plants and establishment of new ones.

About 80 percent of gas associated with crude oil production is currently being flared by the oil company. The Nigerian government has set year 2008 as the deadline for all producing companies to achieve a zero-gas flare in their operations.

Nigeria's currently has one LNG plant, which started production in late 1999. The plant currently operates from two trains, each producing 5.78 million tonnes of LNG per annum. The third train is now under construction, while there are plans to expand the plant to five trains.

The shareholding structure of the present NLNG plant has no American presence. It's owned 49 percent by the government through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, while Shell, Elf and Agip own 25.6 percent, 15 percent and 10.4 percent interests, respectively.