Nigeria committed to sustainable growth of natural gas - FG

Lagos -- The Federal Government says Nigeria is committed to the sustainable growth of natural gas exploitation and utilisation.

It said this was important both for domestic use and export via liquefied natural gas, LNG, and pipeline gas to sub-regional African countries.

President Muhammadu Buhari stated this in an address at the 6th Gas Exporting Countries Forum, GECF, Summit in Doha, Qatar.

Describing Nigeria as a gas province with some oil, the president said the enactment of the Petroleum Industry Act, PIA, was designed to enable Nigeria to derive more value from its natural gas..

According to him, Nigeria is embarking on different initiatives, projects, and policies to enhance the performance of the oil and gas sector.

He listed some of the gas initiatives Nigeria is currently embarking upon to include the National Gas Expansion Programme, NGEP.

“NGEP is designed to provide framework and policy support to extend gas supply and utilisation in power generation, gas-based industries and in emerging niche gas sectors.

“Such are gas in transportation, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) for cooking and remote virtual gas supply using trucks to convey LNG and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) to industries,” he said.

The other initiatives according to the president are the AjaokutaAbuja-Kano gas pipeline to support five billion cubic feet per day of domestic gas utilisation in the near term and five-Gigawatt power generation.

The president noted that with natural gas projected to be the leading fossil fuel in the energy transition, the GECF, given its member countries’ vast experience, was well-positioned to provide a credible platform to promote natural gas as a sustainable fuel for an effective energy transition.

He was represented at the event by Chief Timipre Sylva, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, according to a statement by Horatius Egua, Senior Adviser to the Minister on Media and Communications.