By Yange Ikyaa
Following the faceoff between Russia and the European Union, resulting in the restriction of energy supplies to the EU by Russia, the Nigerian government has said it is positioning itself as an alternative energy suplier to the European economic bloc.
The European Parliament in July last year authorized new a sustainable finance label on all investments channeled towards gas and nuclear power development in a decisive to contain the energy crisis in Europe stemming from the Russia-Ukraine war.
Nigeria’s minister of states for petroleum resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, said that the new policy from EU by which gas and nuclear energy are designated as green energy is what he called “a win-win for Europe and Africa.”
While participating in a ministerial session at the ongoing Gastech Exhibition and Conference 2022 holding in Fiera Milano, Italy, Sylva told the gathering that “today, we are seeing that gas is weaponized and every country requires some alternative supply,” and that “Nigeria is positioning herself to become an alternative supplier to Europe.”
The West African country and Africa’s largest energy producer is currently working in partnership with the government of Algeria to build the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline, which is expected to take the county’s gas for sale to markets in Europe.
In the words of the minister, “we are also having a partnership with Morrocco to extend the West African Gas Pipeline to Morrocco and the Mediterranean region, which will also take gas to Europe.
‘It is a win-win for all of us and it is in their interest to reduce this discriminative investment that the European banks are doing.”
Sylva further called on the EU to provide the appropriate policy framework that enables investments for oil and gas in Nigeria from European investors and financial institutions.
His words: “We can see now that gas will not be wished away just now and gas will stay for a longer period and it’s in our collective interest for us to provide the funding for gas.
“For Nigeria, we need collaboration, funding, and technology. By the time we get this together, we will be able to unlock the Nigerian gas potentials.”
The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) estimates Nigeria’s proven gas reserves as at 209.5 trillion cubic feet (TCF), making it the largest in Sub-Saharan Africa and among the top 10 in the world. Nigeria is also said to hold over 600 TCF of unproven gas reserves.
Sylva believes that, “with the Nigerian Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), there will be more exploration for gas and we will be able to increase our gas reserves to over 600 TCF. We will be one of the biggest players soon.”
He also affirmed that Nigeria will become one of the major players in the gas market, as the Federal Fovernment is taking some bold steps towards increasing investments in LNG.
According to him, “we have declared 2021 – 2030 as the ‘Decade of Gas’ and we are focused on investing in gas. We were producing about 22 million tonnes of LNG and we are increasing it to 30 million tonnes. We are also building a gas train.
“We are also planning to increase our gas production which stands around 8 billion standard cubic foot (scf) per day to about 12.2 billion scf per day.
“We are also exploring opportunities on hydrogen and NNPC is embarking on some hydrogen projects.
‘We will invest in carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) because we believe that’s the way to go for clean energy.”