Nigeria awarded a $2 billion contract to Eni SpA (ENI)’s Agip and Oando Plc (OANDO) to build a natural gas processing facility at Obiafu in the southern Rivers state.

The plant will process wet gas from fields operated by Chevron Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) to supply petrochemical and fertilizer plants to be built in the Delta and Lagos states, Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke said today in Abuja.

Africa’s most populous nation and top oil producer is “re- positioning to be the regional hub for gas-based industries,” Alison-Madueke said.

Nigeria plans to develop its gas reserves and build pipelines to supply power plants and export. The West African country selected 15 companies including Shell, Chevron and Oando in 2009 to participate in its development plan. It is yet to announce the final outcome.

The country plans to spend $30 billion building domestic processing and transmission plants to send gas across the Sahara Desert by pipeline to Europe, according to the state-owned oil company. Nigeria’s gas reserves are estimated at 187 trillion cubic feet, the world’s seventh largest.

-Bloomberg