Ajuri Ngelale, Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Public Affairs says gas is the new oil and future of Nigeria.
Ngelale said this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja while speaking on government’s effort at combating Climate Change issues, particularly gas flaring in the country.
“President Muhammadu Buhari has really prioritised a very key adjustment in the oil and gas sector.
“One of them is that he recognises like many developed nations that gas is the new oil; gas is the future.
“Oil is going to eventually give way to cleaner fuels, wind biomass, solar, electric vehicles, and all of that but we know that gas is going to continue.
“And to be very specific on what I am talking about, not only have we concluded the Final Investment Decision (FID) on train-7 of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG).
“Essentially it’s going to add almost a third of our gas production to our current gas production when train-7 is completed under the NLNG, but he has also prioritised new gas pipeline networks.”
NAN reports that Nigeria’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), recently made under the Conference of Paris Agreement, embodies the country’s efforts to reduce national emissions and to adapt to the effects of climate change.
If fully implemented, these efforts will pave way for a low carbon economy and result in about 50 per cent of reduction in emissions.
It will also boost economic growth at an average annual rate of five per cent by 2030; this represents an important milestone in tackling the challenges of climate change.
Ngelale added that the 2.5billion dollars gas pipeline project- AKK (Ajaokuta to Kaduna to Kano) is a priority of the President, which is geared toward effective export of gas to the Trans-Sahara, North Africa and Morocco.
“Already we have the West Africa Gas Pipeline, we are going to connect that up to Morocco, but we want one that is going to go straight up to the Sahara over the next five to 10 years.
“But first we’re prioritising Northern Nigeria industrialisation that’s going to come as a result of that,” he said.
Ngelale said gas flaring is not only destroying the environment but also a waste of resources, which the President has tackled by involving Siemens (a German global engineering outfit)
‘’The issue of gas flaring has been one that has always been with us for a long time, not only are you destroying the environment, but you’re also wasting resources that you could potentially turn into export.
“In the Presidential Power Initiative, Siemens is working with us to essentially solve all of the issues from generation to transmission to distribution.
“In terms of gas, Siemens is introducing a new technology that is essentially going to bring in some plants, what they call conversion plants across the Niger Delta, which is going to take this excess wasted gas that’s being flared in various communities.
“With all that being done, Mr President has made it very clear that by 2023 gas flaring would have come to an end in Nigeria.
