The Nigerian Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, has called on the European Union (EU) to increase investments in gas and hydrocarbon in Nigeria to enable the bloc to meet its energy needs.
The minister, according to a statement by his Senior Adviser on Media and Communications, Horatius Egua, made the call during a recent courtesy visit by the EU ambassadors to Nigeria led by Amb. Samuela Isopi.
According to the statement, Sylva urged the EU to encourage its oil and gas companies such as Shell, Eni and Total Energies to increase their investments in the Nigerian gas sector.
“One of the things we warned against earlier was the speed with which the EU was taking way investments in fossil fuels.
“We warned that the speed was faster than they were developing renewable energy. You can see now that what we were warning against is what is happening now,” the statement quoted the minister as saying.
Sylva, who called for a change of attitude by the EU should the country’s request to step up gas supply to Europe be granted, complained that lack of investments was the biggest challenge responsible for stunted growth in the development of gas in Nigeria.
“In the last 10 years, over 70 billion dollars worth of investments came to Africa, but sadly less than four billion dollars came to Nigeria.
“Surprisingly, we are the biggest in Africa. If we cannot attract investments to Nigeria, you know where we are heading.
“You have been our long time friend. As at today, our gas reserve is one of the biggest in the world. We have a proven gas reserve of 206 tcf and if we really focus on gas exploitation we can get up to 600 tcf.
“We are already building gas infrastructure such as the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) pipeline project, expected to take gas to Algeria, and the West Africa Gas Pipeline project designed to take gas to Morroco,” the minister stated.
Explaining further, Sylva pointed out that after the Russia-Ukraine war, the EU must have an alternative source of gas, therefore, collaboration with Nigeria in that regard was imperative.
The minister who reaffirmed Nigeria’s commitment to work with the EU to bridge the gap in gas industry, added that from the Russia-Ukraine crisis, it was evident that gas had been weaponized and unless an alternative is created, it would only get worse.
He reassured the EU ambassadors that Nigeria is ready to be an alternative supplier of gas to the EU, and therefore urged the diplomats to encourage its companies operating in the country to invest more in the country.
“We would like to be reliable partners to solve the energy problem in Europe and we can only achieve this by working together. It is only when investment in these areas is increased that Nigeria can meet that obligation,” he said.
Sylva, who also emphasized the need for transfer of technology in gas and renewable energy, said that Africa must be allowed to continue to exploit its hydrocarbon deposits to develop the continent.
Amb. Isopi appealed to the Nigerian government to step into that gap of gas supply chain as an alternative to Russia, adding that the country must not allow the opportunity to pass it by.
She however expressed displeasure and deep concern over the spate of attacks on Shell, Eno and Total Energies’ gas infrastructure in Nigeria, which led to the declaration of force majeure by the companies, saying that the attacks were of great concern to Europe.
“The recent developments in the Niger Delta is of great concern to us,” she said.
Interestingly, a French Ambassador to Nigeria, Amb. Emmaunelle Blatmann, said that in spite of the current challenges in the sector, French companies were ready to commence new investments in Nigeria.
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