Total Seeks Boost in Rail Infrastructure for Gas Development
Total Energies Nigeria Limited has called for the ramping up of Nigeria’s rail infrastructure to take the pressure off the country’s roads in the transportation of gas around the country.
General Manager, Administration, Deepwater, of the company, Mrs. Maryam Shehu, who was a panellist at the just-concluded Nigeria Oil and Gas (NOG) Conference and Exhibition, explained that the movement of molecules around the country remains a major challenge that should be addressed.
She explained that through the years, the company has always been part and parcel of gas development in this country, noting that currently, the Total Energies has three firm agreements to supply gas to the domestic market.
Admitting that operationalisation and administration of the agreements have not been as smooth as it should, Shehu stressed that this is due to the fact that the value chain is still dysfunctional.
Going forward, Shehu stated that as an industry, the decision to develop any gas field remains a value chain decision, starting from the end of the chain, saying that it’s very critical that market developments for gas utilisation was taken seriously.
“The market needs to be quite developed, it needs to be deepened, there has to be some incentivising of industries, using gas and a lot of awareness creation to enable companies that should normally be using gas, but are not using gas today.
“What is quite critical is that the demand for gas has to increase to be able to increase production or to enable the fact that a lot of investments that have been made in the upstream segments of the value chain will be recouped on time,” she noted.
According to the general manager, there are a lot of stranded fields that would require production through the use of virtual pipelines and would need the movement of gas trucks plying the roads.
While appreciating that that government was paying a lot of attention to infrastructure, she noted that it was important that there should be focus on the way roads are being constructed to ensure that they are solid enough to accommodate huge trucks.
“Because, especially the LNG trucks, these trucks are quite heavy. And we’ve also seen the effort government is making, as regards the development and rehabilitation of rail network.
“Today, we recommend that these rail network development should be optimised, and not just focus only on passengers. It should be optimised in such a way that cargo rail is considered in the rail network, so that a lot of pressure can be taken off the road, so that these cargo rails can transport the LNG, CNG from one location to the other,” she said.
Shehu added that to further develop the market and encourage the use of gas, the security situation in the country should be given more attention so that people feel safe to take the gas trucks across to their destination and to the markets.
“And then, people should generally have a good sense of security in the country to be able to boost business to achieve the industrialisation that we require to boost the development of gas,” she explained.