The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has disclosed plans to increase its investment in gas development and transportation projects to achieve affordable and clean energy.
It also stressed that Nigeria will not transition away from hydrocarbons, but would rather increase its footprint of alternative cleaner energy sources in the foreseeable future amid fossil fuel dominance.
The Company’s Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), Mele Kyari made the disclosure at the Society of Petroleum Engineers’ Annual International Conference & Exhibition NAICE 2023 held in Lagos.
He said the company has identified gas as a transition fuel and as such, it is expanding its infrastructure across the country to increase energy accessibility.
Speaking on the theme; “Balancing Energy Accessibility, Affordability, and Sustainability: Strategic Options for Africa”, Kyari who was represented by the Company’s EVP Upstream, Adokiye Tombomieye said African countries were still grappling with strategies for balancing energy availability in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals No 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and No 13 (climate actions).
“Energy accessibility means ensuring all citizens can access reliable, modern energy, irrespective of their location or socio-economic status. Energy affordability entails ensuring energy and its infrastructure are priced so they can be obtained without financial strain by Africans, while Energy sustainability implies that our energy use does not harm the local environment or exhaust resources, affecting future generations.
“This is indeed a trilemma situation and the delicate balance between political will, technological innovation, effective market mechanisms, well-crafted policy interventions, and capacity building. It also demands a multi-stakeholder approach, one that involves government, the private sector, civil society, host community and the public at large,” said Kyari.
He said Nigeria’s current 209.5 Trillion Cubic Feet of natural gas reserves with a potential upside of up to 600 TCF, is an enormous resource that would drive cleaner and affordable energy vision.
Meanwhile, he said alternative energy sources such as solar and wind are faced with technology limitations, hence are still not affordable and cannot meet the high energy demands of industries, cities and remote environments.
To this end, he urged all industry stakeholders to contribute to ensuring the provision of affordable, clean, and efficient energy options to our stakeholders comprising over 200 million Nigerians, under a just and equitable transition.
“This includes not only our efforts in harnessing the existing energy resources but also in innovative research, development, and adoption of new and emerging technologies in the energy sector,” he noted.
On his part, the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) Engr. Farouk Ahmed said Nigeria’s proven gas reserve has the potential to unlock economic development and GDP growth for the country.
He said the Authority is galvanizing the sector by addressing the trilemma of energy accessibility, affordability and sustainability by unlocking the full potential of natural gas which is the cleanest fossil fuel.
“Natural gas has been incorporated in several policy documents such as the National Development Plan, Nationally Determined Contributions, Energy Transition Plan, etc, all stressing the importance of natural gas in the decarbonisation journey,” he said.
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