The Vice President and Head, Energy and Natural Resources, FBN Capital, Rolake Akinkugbe, has said Nigeria will requ
ire at least $20 billion to bridge its gas infrastructure deficit,
Akinkugbe who spoke at the luncheon/panel session organised by the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN) at the ongoing Offshore Technology Conference in Houston Texas, said the investment would also provide the infrastructure required to adequately meet the gas needs of the nation’s 21 gas-fired power plants including the 10 power stations constructed by the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC).
In her presentation titled “Global Gas Outlook and Implications for Nigeria”, Akinkugbe said Nigeria’s gas-fired power plants require over 2.2 billion standard cubic feet per day (bscf/d) of gas. She also projected that the nation’s gas demand will reach 8bscf/d from the current 2.2bscf/d by 2020. She however, noted that making gas available to service domestic requirements will be a key challenge in the short-term.
This also comes as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on last week day last week said it was leading a drive to attract massive global investments into the nation’s gas sub-sector. The NNPC stated that the measure was aimed at ameliorating the effect of the drop in crude oil prices on the Nigerian economy.
The statement was made by the Group Managing Director, NNPC, Dr Joseph Dawha, who was represented by David Ige, Group Executive Director, Gas and Power of the NNPC at a panel session during the ongoing Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston, Texas, USA.
The session which was also organised by PETAN, had a theme of “Natural gas development in Nigeria: A compelling investment frontier in a turbulent oil market”.
Dawha noted that with its immense gas potentials, Nigeria “needs not be and must not be a victim of price drop, instead we should position to benefit from it”. The GMD said the Nigerian gas sector has seen tremendous focus in the last few years.
“We have grown capacity at a pace of 18-20 per cent with supply now at about two billion cubic feet of gas per day in the domestic market from a humble start of about 300 million cubic feet per day a few years ago.’’
The GMD said that based on projected growth demand anchored on growing industrial requirements, the sub-sector needed to grow further to some six billion cubic feet of gas per day. He noted that in spite of the annual investment of millions of dollars in the last four years in gas supply and infrastructure, there was still a need for significant addition to infrastructure and supply development.
“We need investments in gas processing, micro-Liquefied Natural Gas, Compressed Natural Gas as well as upstream Non-Associated Gas (NAG) development. Therein lie the compelling investment opportunities,’’ he said.
