The Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, has said Nigeria earns about $5bn from gas, but described it as too low, particularly when compared to what Egypt earns from the same commodity despite having a far lower gas reserves.
Shettima, who spoke at the 6th Valuechain Annual Lecture and Awards in Abuja, on Thursday, said Nigeria has over 200 trillion cubic feet of untapped gas resources and ranks 9th globally in terms of proven reserves.
He said the impact of truly exploiting the nation’s gas reserves could not be over-stated, as gas was critical to the nation’s power supply, not only accounting for 80 per cent of power generation today, but expected to be the dominant power generation source by the end of this decade.
The Vice President, who was represented by the Special Adviser to the President on Energy and Power Infrastructure, Office of the Vice President, Sodiq Wanka, said, “Today, Nigeria earns around $5bn from gas production, a figure that is 40 per cent less than in Egypt, which has around 30 per cent of Nigeria’s reserves.
“Our production to reserve ratio is less than a third of Egypt’s, less than a quarter of Algeria’s and around 10 per cent of Malaysia’s. In the aftermath of the Russia-Ukraine war, the EU and many other nations were shopping for Liquefied Natural Gas at the same time that Nigeria’s largest LNG assets were operating significantly below capacity because gas supply was inadequate.
“At this rate, according to decade of gas analysis, we could have a demand-supply gap of up to 10bscfd (billion standard cubic feet per day) of gas by 2030.”
He noted that the theme of the event around midstream gas infrastructure was timely, as the importance of critical gas transport infrastructure, processing facilities and other midstream infrastructure could not be overstated.
He said, “One only needs to look at the number of power plants and factories that have built up around the Escravos-Lagos-Pipeline System and its various spurs. Today, I am glad to learn that the AKK pipeline is nearing completion.
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