The Minister of State for Petroleum, Chief Timipre Sylva on Tuesday said Nigeria’s pathway to net-zero is gas.
This was even as Seplat Energy disclosed plans to plant 5 million trees in five years which is one million annually in five states.
Speaking at the launch of Seplat Tree4Life programme in Abuja, he said the Federal Government (FG) was creating corridors and pathways that operators in the industry can take to achieve net-zero.
“As a government, we are also creating corridors and pathways that operators in the industry can take to achieve net-zero, the PIA is an enabler for gas business and as you know as a country, we have stated everywhere in the world that our pathway to net-zero is gas”.
Sylva also maintained that the PIA will enable a lot of gas projects but stressed that it behoves on operators in the industry to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the PIA to deepen the gas business in Nigeria.
“We are also creating corridors to deepen the gas business, the AKK is a corridor that we are building from the southern part of Nigeria to North, we are also creating a corridor from the West Africa pipeline to Morocco, these are all opportunities that government is putting in place and should be taken advantage by operators”.
Meanwhile, the Chief Executive Officer, Mr Roger Brown said the plan to plant trees was part of its contribution to the global efforts to reduce carbon emissions.
He said this would be piloted in five states; Delta, Edo, Delta and two yet to be identified northern states.
Brown noted that Nigeria needs lots of energy and job opportunities considering her population and as such, must ensure energy accessibility and affordability.
“Our initial target is 5 million trees that is 1 million trees every year for 5 years, but I know if I stop this Programme 5 years from now, our Chairman will phone on why we are not going up, anyway it is not 1 million trees, it is 5 million trees a year, so we are focusing on 5 states initially Delta, Edo, Delta and 2 northern states which will be disclosed later,” he said.
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On his part, Chairman Seplat, ABC Orjiakor said that human activities have continued to degrade the environment and Nigeria is duty-bound to protect it.
His words: “In Nigeria, for example, more than 60% are in darkness, how then can we justify that someone tells us not to invest in fossil fuel that is not appropriate and for us in our company, what we are saying is that it will impact in the way we do business by making sure we ensure efficiency in the way we operate and ensuring that Seplat is delivering 25-30% of gas to Nigeria,
“The only reason we keep stressing this is that gas is a cleaner form of energy and brings that down to the home where more than 80% of the real energy need is in the domestic household which means that it is complete deforestation that is happening in our environment.”
He added that deforestation contributes to effect of climate change but tree planting will help mitigate its impact and ensure the protection of the environment.”
“The more you deforest, not only are you encouraging climate change but you keep emitting more carbon dioxide and greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere so we then decided that the tree planting exercise aim at putting in check deforestation, protect our environment and our forest and encourage reforestation such that everywhere you are you are planting trees”.
“Tree planting will also impact food security and job creation for the youth and women,” he added.
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