THE Group Managing Director (GMD), Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr Maikanti Baru, on Thursday, announced that the corporation will soon diversify its revenue inflow using the country’s enormous gas resources to mitigate the impacts of future oil price drops and accelerate the growth of the nation’s economy.
He made this announcement at the 2018 Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Oloibiri Lecture Series and Energy Forum, with the Theme: The Nigerian Oil Industry in a world of Changing Energy Supply- Are we prepared?”, held at Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) auditorium, Abuja.
Represented by the Chief Operating Officer (COO), Upstream of the corporation, Engineer Bello Rabiu, Dr Baru stated that NNPC has embarked on one of the most aggressive gas reforms and implementation, noting that Nigeria has developed a fresh strategy to mitigate the impacts of future oil price drops.
According to him, the strategy includes the diversification from oil using Nigeria’s enormous gas resources for in-country industrialization viz- Gas to Power, Gas to Urea, Methanol and Fertilizers among other uses.
“Accelerated implementation of gas pipeline infrastructure development, with a specific focus on critical pipeline infrastructure to power plants being put in place. Between 2010 and today, almost 500km of pipelines have been completed, commissioned and now delivering gas.
“Some of the completed pipelines include the Oben-Geregu (196km), Escravos-Warri-Oben (110km), Emuren-Itoki (50km), Itoki-Olorunshogo (31km), Imo River-Alaoji (24km), Ukanafun-Calabar (128km). With these, all available power plants in the country today are connected to permanent gas supply pipelines,” he said.
NNPC GMD further said there is an ongoing construction of the very strategic East-West OB3 pipeline (127km) scheduled for completion by Q3 2018 and the expansion of the Escravos-Lagos Gas Pipeline System scheduled for completion by Q1 2018.
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He explained that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the contract award of the 40-inch by 614Km Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano pipeline and associated facilities, saying the pipeline was expected to supply natural gas to power plants and industries in the northern part of the country.
Baru said when completed, the nationwide backbone gas infrastructure will be in place, stressing that with the effort in infrastructure development, Nigeria would have expanded supply capacity, establishing an integrated gas pipeline infrastructure grid across the entire country.
In his speech, the Executive Secretary, PTDF, Bello Gusau, said the initiative to begin to plan ways of withstanding the emerging trends in the global oil and gas industry was paramount because whether Nigeria journey must catch up with the country.
He noted that crude oil as it was had been deposited below the nation’s earth for millions of years, and but can only be made useful with the adequate human capacity.
The PTDF secretary emphasized the need to develop the necessary human resources that would enable Nigeria to play a significant role with regards to the emerging development in the global oil and gas industry.
The former Minister of Power, Professor Barth Nnaji, who was the moderator, the CEO of Petroleum Technology Institute (PTI), Nicholas Terraz were among the dignitaries at the occasion.
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