• Nigeria aims to use its gas to provide energy to about 100 million people 

Russell Searancke, Upstream

CALGARY
Energiesnet.com 09 21 2023

Nigeria’s huge natural gas reserves are crucial to the government’s aim of bringing energy to the millions of its people who have no access to power, with one major domestic pipeline making meaningful construction progress, according to a senior Nigerian official.

Gabriel Aduda, Nigeria’s Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, spoke passionately at the World Petroleum Congress in Calgary about Nigerian energy security, energy supply, attitude to the energy transition and net zero, and the role that gas could play in alleviating energy poverty in Nigeria.

There are about 100 million people in Nigeria with no access to power, and the transmission of gas to those people is essential, said Aduda. There is plenty of work to do – and opportunity, given the domestic gas utilisation rate is almost nothing, he added.

Nigeria’s gas resources are understood to total about 200 trillion cubic feet.

Two major gas pipeline projects – the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) scheme and the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline project – are part of this plan.

The AKK pipeline is about 70% complete, while the Morocco line is still in the planning phase, said Aduda.

He said Nigeria is seeking new investment partners to help progress its gas strategy plans, and that a conversation is under way with the government of Libya on gas partnership.

The AKK project is a 614-kilometre pipeline that will transport gas from the southern coast to Nigeria’s northern interior and, the government hopes, to planned regional networks that will connect to Europe.

The proposed 7000-kilometre Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline has the ultimate aim of sending gas from Nigeria to Europe.

Gas production in Nigeria is associated with the production of oil. There is a liquefied natural gas project on Bonny Island with six producing trains and a seventh under construction. But a substantial amount of associated gas is flared.

The problem with the energy transition

Aduda spoke about the difficulties for Nigeria and the African continent with the energy transition and carbon reduction goals.

He said Nigeria has a net zero target of 2060, but to meet that objective will require huge capital investments.

The country is focused on growing its oil and gas sector in a “responsible” way with reduced emissions, while developing a renewables sector is unrealistic for the time being.

“There is the reality of climate change and then there is also the politics of climate change. And that is why we say that Africa has evolved its own transition agenda. It cannot be forced. It cannot be rushed; it has to be on our terms.”

upstreamonline,com 09 21 2023