Nigeria is oil-rich, but energy-poor–Stakeholders’

BY SYLVA EMEKA-OKEREKE, Publisher
It is no longer news that Nigeria is Africa’s biggest oil producer, with fossil fuels accounting for over 60 percent of government revenue and 90 percent foreign exchange earnings.
Beyond this, its vast energy reserves could be harnessed to fuel development as well as stabilize economic activities.
But despite her huge natural deposits, the nation has shortage of reliable power supply, which appears to be the major constraints to economic growth.
Long before now, the International Energy Agency had disclosed that over 1.3 billion citizens are without access to electricity while 2.6 billion are without clean cooking facilities.
Perhaps, this verdict of economic woes, amid vast energy potential appeared to have given a flip to Realnews, an online newsmagazine, to focus on the nation’s oil and gas sector in this year’s annual lecture series.
Tagged, “Nigeria in the Unfolding Integration of the African Market: the Oil and Gas Perspective”, the stakeholders at the 9th edition of the Realnews Annual Lecture held at Sheraton Hotels and Towers, Lagos on Thursday, November 18, drew in a sharper perspective the need to develop the sector in line with decade of gas declaration.
They decried the ugly trend in oil and gas sector, urging the Federal Government to start with immediate effect, the implementation of several initiatives to develop the gas sector.
Disclosing government’s development initiatives in the sector, the Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, Engr. Simbi Wabote in his keynote address, as Guest Speaker at the event, noted that the federal government is pursuing various aspects of gas development, as well as utilization programmes to enhance delivery of government policy directives on gas, stressing that 70 percent of the partnership investment programmes are targeted towards gas development projects.
His statement, “Africa’s industrialization agenda is at the heart of AFCFTA and fossil fuels remains a very significant part of the energy mix required for industrializing the continent”.
According to him, the pull-back of investments on hydrocarbon development projects is indeed a challenge for oil producing countries such as Nigeria, listing some key areas of focus to address some of these challenges included — collaborative platform provided by AFCFTA to provide funding and — technology required to operate and develop hydrocarbon projects.
The third, he said would be to have in place an investment-friendly law such as the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021. “This will come in handy to attract much needed funds for project developments when the effect of the premature halting of new hydrocarbon projects lead to supply shortages with attendant unbearable price hikes,” he said.
Speaking on resolving impending challenges of investments in oil and gas industry, he stated, “In realization of the enormous prospects that gas holds as a cleaner, more efficient fuel in Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari declared year 2021 to 2031 as the Decade of Gas. As variously espoused by Mr. President and the Honorable Minister of State for Petroleum Resources at various fora, the future of Nigeria’s hydrocarbon industry is in gas”.
He however noted that construction works on NLNG Train-7 has commenced which would increase the current capacity of the plant by 30 percent while the 614km-long Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) gas pipeline under construction by NNPC is expected to transport 3.5bscf/day of gas.
Dwelling on the opportunities that could be realized by the Nigerian oil and gas industry against the AFCFTA agreement, he stated that the African oil and gas landscape provides huge opportunities for cross-border infrastructure to unlock the development of stranded assets or bring energy closer to the people and such infrastructure also leads to lower unit development costs.

According to him, infrastructure like the West Africa Gas Pipeline (WAGP) and ongoing AKK gas transmission infrastructure can serve regional markets in West
Wabote also clarified that Local Content was not opposed to trade liberalization, stressing that no nation is blessed with the full list of natural resources, and can produce every product it requires.