Noting that much of Africa’s gas supply growth will come from Nigeria, PwC, in its Africa Oil and Gas Review 2020, themed energising a new tomorrow, added that the positive outlook for natural gas, which is often termed the renewable bridging fuel due to its lower carbon footprint, will see stronger price and demand recovery as countries move to rebuild their economies.
The report reflected the opportunities in gas export for Nigeria, noting that Africa consumes 63% of its total gas production, predominantly for power generation, even though the continent’s gas exporting countries saw a total decline of more than 6% in 2020 from 39.7 mtpa in 2019 to 37.3 mtpa in 2020.
Available data show that Nigeria produces 49.3bcm of gas, with 24.8bcm or 50.3 per cent exported to Europe and Asia. Indeed, projections on natural gas demand in Africa show a gradual increase over the next 20 years with global peak gas only expected towards 2035–2040.
Already, the Federal Government had restated its focus on gas as a platform to drive a truly sustainable in-country economic diversification.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, recently said: “Our strategy to strengthen the Nigerian oil and gas industry in a post-COVID-19 world is to transform our national oil company into a diversified energy holding company to enable us respond swiftly to the twin challenges of a future crash in crude oil prices and decarbonization, by moving rapidly to becoming an energy holding company with more diverse interests.
“Consequently, we have strategically focused on our vast natural gas resources, as a critical transition fuel to help battle global warming and function as bridge between the dominant fossil fuel of today and the renewable energy of tomorrow”.
PwC however warned that with the fragile energy infrastructure and a high level of energy poverty in Africa, governments must pay particular attention to the implications of COVID-19’s impact on the energy sector.
Specifically, PwC highlighted the need to advance energy access and rebuilding economic activity through industrialisation as being more critical than ever.
SOURCE: guardian.ng