President Muhammadu Buhari has said that the signing of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) into law is the surest evidence of Nigeria’s intention to focus attention on natural gas exploitation.
In his address at the ongoing 6th Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) Summit in Doha, Qatar, yesterday, President Muhammadu Buhari said the law was designed to enable Nigeria to derive more value from the abundant natural gas that the country has.
Represented by minister of state, petroleum resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, President Buhari said with the law, the federal government shows commitment to deriving more value from natural gas by providing the required governance, regulatory and fiscal framework to support the industry’s growth.
He told the oil and gas experts who gathered in Doha that Nigeria is committed to the sustainable growth of natural gas exploitation and utilization, both for domestic use and export via LNG and pipeline gas to sub-regional African countries.
Buhari said Nigeria is going engaging with different initiatives, projects, and policies to boost the activities and capacities as well as performance of the oil and gas sector.
Some of the Nigeria’s gas initiatives include the National Gas Expansion Program (NGEP), which is designed to provide framework and policy support to extend gas supply and utilization in power generation, gas-based industries and in emerging niche gas sectors.
“Such as gas in vehicular transportation, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) for cooking and remote virtual gas supply using trucks to convey LNG and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) to industries,” the Nigerian president said.
The other initiatives according to the president are the Ajaokuta-Abuja-Kano gas pipeline to support five billion cubic feet per day of domestic gas utilization in the near term and five-Gigawatt power generation.
“The expansion of the current LNG production capacity to about 30 million tons per annum at Bonny with the on-going N-LNG Train seven project and the declaration of 2021-2030 as the Decade of Gas towards a gas-powered economy,” Buhari said.
He explained that this would not only lower Nigeria’s Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions but also reduce the country’s import bills. With natural gas projected to be the leading fossil fuel in the energy transition, the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) Summit in Doha, is positioned to provide a veritable platform to promote natural gas as the way to go in effective energy transition.
“We, therefore, need to continue to assess the gas and energy market dynamics both in the short, medium, and long-term time frame with the aim of taking market opportunities and collectively address the challenges,” he noted.
While restating Nigeria’s commitment to the Conference of Parties (COP26) Glasgow declaration towards zero carbon emissions, Buhari however underscored the importance of natural gas for an effective energy transition towards a low carbon future.
Chidi Ekpewerechi
Be the first to know when we publish an update
