Nigeria Will Experience Massive Development In Gas Infrastructure By 2024- NNPC GMD

The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mele Kyari has said that the Corporation is galvanising massive investments in the gas sector to meet the energy needs of the country and for exports.

He said with the initiatives being implemented by the Corporation under its gas masterplan, Nigerians will in the next three to four years begin to experience remarkable improvement in the country’s gas infrastructure.

Kyari said these on Tuesday in Abuja at the 20th edition of the Nigerian Oil and Gas conference with theme; “Fortifying the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry for Economic Stability and Growth.”

Kyari spoke on the sub theme, “Vision and priorities for Nigeria’s energy transformation.”

The NNPC GMD said that while there has been arguments that fossil fuel will no longer be in use by 2050, such assumptions may not be realistic based on current economic realities.

He explained that as an oil company, the NNPC has started taking steps to create the right balance between fossil fuel and renewables.

He said, “If oil could provide the fulcrum for us, one thing we are also sure of is that gas is everything, no one has said correctly when deep gas will come, there are talks around 20-30 years to come which is still far away .

” It means there’s still space for us to operate in. and therefore our focus is to deepen gas monetization not really consumption. That means we will have to do both domestic and for export.”

He said for a developing country like Nigeria that is also resource dependent, the Corporation understands that gas is the way to go to deepen the country’s energy mix.

The NNPC GMD said currently, the focus for the Corporation and its partners is to make sure that gas development is achieved.

He added, “The next step for us is to see how we can accelerate those developments, bring in more investment, create the right atmosphere just as NLNG has pointed out and the key issue is pricing, nobody has the right pricing whether or not you can recover your value.

“We know there are issues around revenue collection, but gradually they are being resolved by the government substantially, but I know that the domestic market will work for us.

“Our biggest project train is train 7, but there are many other initiatives that are coming up, and there are so many indications that this will work, and hopefully before the next 3 to 4 years, we will see massive development in gas infrastructure.”

He said that the NNPC is currently transiting from an oil company into a national energy company.

The implication of this, he noted, is that the Corporation is looking at the balances between renewable and fossil fuel.

He added, “As you are aware, very many of our partners are looking for businesses outside the oil and gas industry, but we have not met the speed that we want but are making progress to become energy company.

“This means that we will do many other businesses in partnership with our colleagues in the industry and we know this is working.

“We know for sure that this is where we are going, and with our partners, we transit through gas development and of course the hydrogen question will come in.

On the Dangote Refinery, the NNPC GMD explained that with the Refinery projected to deliver about 50 million liters of petrol to the country, coupled with the take-off of the Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna Refineries’ project, Nigeria would become a hub of petroleum products in the continent.

He added, “Also, delivering on the Dangote refinery, as you are all aware, we are taking interest in the Dangote Refinery for very strategic reason, because that is the right thing to do.

“So, the package around local refining and processing of petroleum in this country is to make this country a hub for petroleum for West African sub-region and most part of southern African coast and ultimately to reverse the flow of product from Nigeria to  other country and make it the other way round.

“And this ambition that is within sight, within the next two years, we must be very confident that some things will change, and that means that we will not only be energy sufficient but we will export finished petroleum product out of the country.”

Kyari admitted that the industry is facing so many challenges, adding that financial institutions have changed their priorities as some of them have stopped lending to energy businesses.

He said the decision of some financial institutions not to lend was based on the uncertainties surrounding the assumptions that probably in the next five years, there won’t fossil fuel oriented businesses.