Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), yesterday, harped on the need to complete the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) pipeline, Trans-Sahara Gas Pipelines and Nigerian -Morocco pipeline.
The Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, who spoke at the 2023 Oloibiri Lecture Series and Energy Forum of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) in Abuja, noted that progress is being made on the three projects.
The Trans-Sahara Gas Pipelines project is to cost $13 billion, while the Nigerian-Morocco pipeline, a 6,000 kilometre project, which would traverse 13 African nations along the Atlantic coast and supply the landlocked countries, would cost $25 billion and the 614 kilometre AKK pipeline was awarded for $2.8 billion.
Although Nigeria has created a number of initiatives to reinvent gas amid dwindling oil revenue, the Ukraine and Russia war has changed the dynamics in the energy sector, forcing Europe to focus on the resource and Africa as a strategic partner for the product, they once dropped for renewable energy.
Kyari, while speaking at the conference, themed “Effective gas resource utilisation: A lever for enhancing energy security and achieving net-zero emission goals in Nigeria,” submitted: “We are working assiduously to ensure timely delivery of major domestic gas pipeline infrastructure projects, including the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano gas pipeline corridor and associated power plants.
NNPCL is also making progress on the planned Nigeria-Morocco and the Trans-Sahara Gas Pipelines that will connect West African countries to deliver natural gas to the international markets.”
With gas reserves of 209.5 billion standard cubic feet, Nigeria is looking to harness gas as transition fuel amid global push from fossil fuels, but the infrastructure to achieve the goal remained a challenge even as the country depends on export market for local utilisation.”
The NNPCL boss noted that the ongoing Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas (NLNG) Train 7 project would expand LNG production capacity for export to about 30 million tons yearly. He said NNPCL is deploying carbon-reduction initiatives to decarbonise operations and improve compliance with global emission reduction.
Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Gabriel Aduda said Nigeria remained first African country to regulate methane emissions from oil and gas sector in 2022, thereby achieving the Global Methane Pledge (GMP) goal of cutting anthropogenic methane emissions by 30 percent in 2030.
According to him, the PIA (Petroleum Industry Act) has led to creation of regulatory frameworks with clear-cut mandates for the growth and development of the oil and gas sector.
