South Korea's Daewoo Engineering & Construction said Sunday it has secured a $250 million contract from Shell to build a gas processing facility in Nigeria.

The project would be completed in 37 months and fits into the Nigeria's domestic gas development plan, the company said in a statement.

"The gas processing facility is being set up under a joint venture in which NNPC holds a 55% stake, Shell 30%, EPNL [French Total] 10% and Agip [Italy's Eni] 5%," Daewoo said.

"Daewoo will be involved with engineering, procurement to construction work under the project," it added.

It did not say where the facility will be built.

A Shell spokesman said he could not immediately confirm the contract award to Daewoo.

Shell said Monday gas output from its Gbaran-Ubie field had hit 1 Bcf/day and that it is looking forward to supplying to Nigeria's power plants.

Nigeria holds the world's seventh largest gas reserves but has not been able to fully tap into the huge potential, estimated at 185 Tcf, because of poor infrastructure and inconsistent policies.

The government launched a gas master plan in 2008 which puts the focus on increased domestic gas supply and massive construction of infrastructure.

--Staff, newsdesk@platts.com