Nigeria canvasses for investments and possible collaboration with other countries in West Africa to develop its Gas Master Plan

By Anayo Ezugwu

THE Nigeria Gas Master Plan may remain a mirage unless the federal government invests in gas infrastructure. Salisu Jamar, general manager, Gas, National Petroleum Investment Management Services, NAPIMS, a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, said at the 2019 West African International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, WAIPEC, that gas exploration and production requires huge investment which could come from  from anywhere.

According to him, the federal government is working to attract both foreign and local investors to develop the gas master plan. The needed investment will not come unless the government create conducive atmosphere very convenient for people to come and invest, he said. “We have a lot of hydrocarbon resources which we need to explore to the advantage of our people. But that requires huge investment and especially in production because despite our hydrocarbon resources we need to make more investment in order to actualise the master plan.

“We need to sustain our production and improve on it. Some countries have made efforts in terms of exploration and discoveries in the last 10 years. And we need to make a lot of investment in terms of production and exploration. We are doing everything to make sure that we encourage foreign and local investors to come and invest in the industry to be able to support the government in making sure that our production of oil is sustained up to our quota giving to us by Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC.

“And also to make sure that gas is available for local utilisation and also meet our international obligations. So we are open to every support a prospective investor would like to have. So investors are free to go to any of the NNPC subsidiary they have interest to invest in. We will definitely give them what it takes to be able to realise their proposals,” he said.

According to Jamar, the drive for Nigeria’s gas exploration and exploitation would be in the deepwater. The country has a lot of resources in the deepwater and new discoveries have also been made. “NAPIMS intends to adopt a strategy to explore and exploit the deepwater hydrocarbon in line with the government aspirations.

The first strategy is is to be able to explore the deepwater resources and deal with the three point agenda of the government which is security, economy and corruption. “We are also working with the International Oil Companies, IOCs, to be able to exit the cash call agreement which is like a trap we got ourselves in that is hindering our exploration and exploitation drive.

“We have entered into some exploration and production activities and we intend to adhere strictly to implement the Gas Master Plan, which is very popular with everybody in the industry. Everyone knows what is in the Gas Master Plan so we intend to adhere strictly to make sure that we achieve the master plan.

“We have also established a lot of institutions and agencies to make sure that the gas market becomes attractive to gas suppliers. That was why Gas Regulation Company was established. So we are working to support our local industries and to make sure that all our plans are met. We introduce agency to help every supplier of gas to meet target because availability of gas is very important in supporting our local companies.

“There are so many other things we are doing to make sure that we encourage investment and attract more foreign investment into the industry. We are making sure that we support our local industrial growth and we also abide by our obligations to our partners and investors.”

Jamar called on the sub-Saharan African countries to collaborate in developing hydrocarbon in the region. “Importantly, also is the fact we in the sub-Saharan Africa cannot work as individual countries or companies. We need to collaborate and bring our different experiences together to develop exploration and production of hydrocarbon resources that we have.

“I would like to make appeal. We in NNPC have experience in gas exploration more than other countries in the region and we will welcome our brothers and sisters to come and share from these experience. We are ready to give them support for them to benefit from our lessons to be able to surmount the challenges facing them,” he said.

– Jan. 25, 2019 @ 14:49 GMT |