By YANGE IKYAA
As the world transits to cleaner energy sources, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has affirmed Nigeria’s preparedness to play a strategic role in the new global energy order.
The group managing director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mallam Mele Kyari, stated this at the “Decade of Gas Pre-summit Conference,” which held Monday in Abuja, with the theme “Towards Gas-Powered Economy by 2030.”
In a welcome address at the
event, Kyari explained that technology and innovation were facilitating a new global energy order, aimed at decarbonizing the world and safeguarding the climate.
The NNPC boss further stressed that renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, which would be key components of the new energy mix globally, were largely influenced by seasons and were non-transportable to demand centres where they are in short supply.
He contended that under the evolving circumstances of energy demand throughout the world, natural gas and, by extension, blue hydrogen would be heavily depended upon as transition fuels.
This means that gases will increasingly play key roles in the rapidly growing clean energy drive worldwide and would provide a significant proportion of the global energy mix, as well as guarantee feedstock to gas-based industries.
According to Kyari, “Nigeria, under the visionary leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, has committed huge resources to ensure that domestic gas infrastructure reach every corner of our country to deepen natural gas utilization, spur investment in power and gas-based industries, grow the economy and generate employment for millions of our young people.”
He also narrated that Nigeria as a gas nation, with over 203 trillion standard cubic feet (tscf) of proven gas reserves, is monetizing the huge gas resources spurred by numerous policy and industry interventions since 2016, culminating in the declaration of 2020 as the year of gas and progressing into the decade of gas from 2021.
Official documents from NNPC seen by The Africanscholar show that the corporation and its partners have embarked on a number of strategic projects to deepen delivery of gas to the domestic market and also increase the build-up of greater capacity and potential for export.
“The completion of the Escravos-Lagos Pipeline System Phase 2 (ELPS II), commissioning of the Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben (OB3) Lot 2, the NPDC Oredo Gas Handling Facility, and the SEEPCO Gas Processing Plant can be easily cited, even without mentioning ongoing strategic backbone gas infrastructure projects such as the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) pipeline, the OB3 final hook-up, the Nigeria-Morroco pipeline and several other gas-based industries initiatives. All these will herald the sunrise of gas revolution in our country within the decade,” said the NNPC GMD.
As part of the journey to make the “Decade of Gas” a reality, the federal government has also rolled out the “Autogas Initiative” to provide a cleaner and cheaper transportation-fuel alternative to petrol.
The initiative has received huge support from the entire Nigerian energy industry and has now gained tremendous traction nationwide.
