The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari has said that Nigeria is a gas nation with over 203tscf of proven gas reserves and potentially over 600tcf.
Mallam Kyari revealed this while delivering his welcome address at the 2021 Pre-Summit Conference of the Nigeria International Petroleum Summit holding in Abuja, Nigeria.
“Our effort at monetizing the huge gas resources has been modest but clearly spurred to higher level by numerous policy and industry interventions since 2016 culminating in the declaration of year 2020 as year of gas and now progressing with the decade of gas from year 2021, Kyari said.
He said that the Pre-Summit Conference come at the most crucial time, as the world transits to cleaner energy and Nigeria is set to play strategic role in this New World Energy Order.
His statement read, “Technology and Innovation are facilitating a new energy transition aimed at decarbonizing the world and safeguarding the climate. But renewable energy sources of solar and wind, key components of the new energy mix are influenced by seasons and are non-transportable to demand centres that are short of wind or sun. A transition fuels is therefore necessary and clearly unavoidable.
“As part of the clean energy drive, Natural Gas and by extension Blue Hydrogen will therefore be heavily dependent upon to provide significant proportion of global energy mix as well as guaranteed feedstock to gas-based industries.
“Nigeria under the visionary leadership of President Buhari has committed huge resources to ensure domestic gas infrastructure reach every corner of our country, deepen gas utilization, spur investment in power and gas industries and generate employment for millions.
“Needless to mention that several strategic projects had been delivered by NNPC and her partners to deepen delivery of gas into the domestic market and elevate the build-up of greater potentials for export.
“The completion of the ELPS II, commissioning of the OB3 lot 2, the NPDC Oredo gas handling facility, the SEEPCO gas processing plant can be easily cited even without the mention of the ongoing strategic backbone infrastructure delivery projects as the AKK pipeline, the OB3 final hook-up, the Nigeria-Morroco pipeline and several other gas based industries initiatives. All this will herald the sunset of gas revolution in our country within the decade.
Kyari craved the indulgence of the participants to mention that as part of Nigeria’s journey to making the Decade Of Gas a reality, the Nigerian Government has also rolled out Autogas initiative to provide alternative cleaner & cheaper source of transportation fuel. This has achieved tremendous traction and supported hugely by the entire energy industry.
“We are so grateful to Mr. President for the continued support and interest in the National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP) and other initiatives geared towards greater gas monetization and utilization in our country, Kyari concluded.
Nigeria’s petroleum industry is the largest in Africa with proven Oil and Gas reserves of 37 billion barrels (bbl) and 192 trillion cubic feet respectively. The sector contributes about 10% to the country’s Gross Domestic Product and accounts for 95% of all exports Given that Nigeria’s Gas reserves have remained largely untapped, the country is expected to make a shift towards becoming a major producer and export of Gas.
