Nigeria’s domestic gas infrastructure network, according to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), has the capacity to transport 6.9 billion standard cubic feet of gas to support power generation and gas-based industries.
Mallam Mele Kyari, Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Ltd., announced this on Thursday in Abuja at the 2023 Oloibiri Lecture Series and Energy Forum.
The theme of the Society of Petroleum Engineers’ forum was “Effective Gas Resources Utilization: A Lever for Enhancing Energy Security and Achieving Net-Zero Emission Goals in Nigeria.”
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, Kyari stated that Nigeria’s massive investment in gas infrastructure is based on the country’s growing natural gas reserves, thereby supporting the country’s ambition to become Africa’s largest industrial hub powered by low-carbon energy.
He stated that NNPC Ltd. was capitalising on Nigeria’s massive natural gas reserves of over 200 trillion cubic feet, which have the potential to grow to 600 TCF due to the recent resolution of Production Sharing Contract disputes with partners.
He stated that this significant reserve would serve as a low-carbon energy alternative, supporting growth in the power and industrial sectors, addressing energy poverty, reducing the carbon footprint, and creating more job opportunities.
He said:
NNPC is playing a leading role in the realisation of the National Gas Expansion Programme, which seeks to deepen natural gas utilisation as an alternative transportation fuel, and an important feedstock for gas-based industries development.
We are working assiduously to ensure timely delivery of gas pipeline infrastructure projects, including the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano gas pipeline corridor, planned Nigeria-Morocco and Trans-Sahara Gas Pipelines, that will connect West African countries to deliver natural gas to international markets.
In terms of the gas export market, the NNPC CEO stated that the ongoing Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas Train Seven would increase Nigeria’s LNG production capacity from 22 million tonnes per year to approximately 30 MTPA.
Kyari stated that it was leveraging the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act to attract more investment in the Nigerian petroleum sector in order to continue to ensure energy access while aligning with the global energy transition.
He said:
As part of our sustainability strategy, NNPC is deploying carbon-reduction initiatives to gradually decarbonise our operations and improve our compliance with global emission reduction.
All of these cannot be achieved if we do not have the security of our operations. We will continue to further deepen collaboration amongst all the relevant stakeholders; government security agencies, host communities and others to enhance energy security.
NNPC will deepen relationships with the industry, governments, research institutions and the academia to strengthen its renewable energy division to pursue commercially viable new energy ventures in line with Nigeria’s net-zero aspiration by 2060.
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