The Federal Government says it is targeting 10 percent of the world’s market share in traded Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), as part of strategies to derive maximum value from Nigeria’s abundant natural gas resources.
Dr Maikanti Baru. Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), said Tuesday, while addressing the 27th World Gas Conference (WGC) in Washington DC, that with emerging gas markets and the need to generate more power across Africa’s Sub-Saharan region, there abound an unprecedented investment opportunity in the gas sector for Nigeria.
Speaking on “The Role of Gas in Power Generation” Baru said, “We are focused on jumpstarting and sustaining gas supply to support a rapid growth in power generation, re-positioning Nigeria as the regional hub for gas-based industries such as fertilizer, petrochemicals, methanol, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), as well as leveraging our enormous reserves position to strengthen our footprints in high value gas export.”
He said Nigeria was focused on expanding its existing 22 million metric tonnes per annum (MTPA) Nigerian LNG plant with additional 8MTPA from its proposed Train 7, a development that will significantly increase global power generation capacity.
He further noted that towards achieving these gas aspirations, the Federal Government recently approved three-pronged reforms in the gas sector which included domestic gas supply obligation, gas pricing policy and regulation as well as gas infrastructure blueprint.
Nigeria has completed and commissioned about 600km of new gas pipelines, thereby connecting all existing power plants to permanent gas supply pipelines, according to Baru.
On the planned Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline Project, Baru stated that it would foster regional economic integration, reduce desertification, as well as enable accelerated regional electrification.
“It will contribute significantly to the overall economic development of the region through the emergence of a wide range of industrial clusters around petrochemical, manufacturing, agro-business and fertilizers among others,” he stated.
Organised since 1931 by the International Gas Union (IGU), the WGC is a triennial event which aims to raise the profile of natural gas, while offering timely updates on strategic, commercial and technical issues facing the entire gas value-chain.
Subscribe To Newsletter
