H.E. Mr Timipre Sylva, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, announced the identification of 20 crucial gas projects during a roundtable discussion hosted by the African Energy Chamber. These projects will address domestic and regional energy security, enhance exports, and scale up gas investment and development.

He discussed the industry’s long-standing problems and how the Petroleum Industry Act is addressing them. He also expressed his excitement for this decade of gas and what it means for Nigerian gas’s future, amongst other key issues.

Excerpts from his submission:

“With the passing the PIA, we believe that we are ready for investors.”

“With regulatory institutions enabled by the PIA now in place, we are seeing interest from investors in Nigeria and international firms including Shell, Chevron and ExxonMobil who have committed to making additional investments in the offshore sector as some of these firms move away from onshore operations.”

“We have also identified 20 critical gas projects in Nigeria which we will discuss or sign. We are focusing on gas going forward on the back of the Decade of Gas initiative and now we have clear gas fiscal provisions in the PIA. The government is encouraging investments and we are working with investors to bring these gas projects online.”

“One of the projects we are deploying in Nigeria is a major gas turbine in Abuja, which was previously unthinkable because there was no gas supply. In the north, we have a firm seeking to invest in an energy island. The project will transport gas virtually from the south via the Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano (AKK) Natural Gas Pipeline. A lot of industries which had shutdown are now coming back into operation owing to access to gas from the AKK.”

“We have already constructed 614 km of the pipeline within Nigeria. Algeria also started construction. It is between the end of Nigeria in the north through Niger to Algeria that we need to connect. We are doing a feasibility study at the moment. Regarding funding, we have been meeting with a lot of European firms and countries and we will get funding for the project from Europe. We had a meeting with Algeria and Niger in Abuja to discuss gas supply and with the demand for gas increasing and the energy transition intensifying, we are eager to develop to meet our timeline.”