FG Identifies 20 Priority Projects to Boost Nigeria’s Gas Supply to 4.6Bcfd by 2030

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The ‘Decade of Gas’ working group yesterday said it had identified 20 priority gas projects, with potential to supply 4.6 BCFD by 2030, as Nigeria continues to ramp up its efforts towards cheaper and cleaner fuels.

In an online interactive session with journalists, anchored by the Lead Economic Principle Workstream of the office, Ramatu Abdullahi and Lead Infrastructure Workstream, Taofeek Balogun, the office stated that there were clear directives from President Bola Tinubu to ensure that the aim of the programme is realised.

Essentially, Nigeria’s ‘Decade of Gas’ is a government-led initiative aimed at harnessing the country’s vast gas reserves to drive economic growth and development.

Abdullahi told journalists that some of the projects that will lead to the realisation of the Decade of Gas by 2030 were being handled by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), SPDC, Seplat, Total Energies, Chevron, Sunlink, Amni and ExxonMobil.

“We have approvals from the president for some directives. We will be looking to implement those directives. We’ve started with a focus on supply because of the nature of the gas industry.

“If we want to get there within the decade, we have to be very proactive to make sure the projects come on line quickly because some of these projects in the oil and gas industry take can take up to one year or two years. So we’ve started with supply.

“We’re going to give that sort of focus also to the other side of the equation and start looking at the demand sides,” she stated.

To push towards the 2030 goal, she stated that the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) had recently announced successful bidders for the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme (NGFCP) to process flare gas for domestic utilisation.

She further listed the SPDC JV’s ISENI Final Investment Decision (FID) of 100mmscfd, which will supply for domestic utilization, recalling that President Bola Tinubu also recent signed some executive orders providing improved fiscals for onshore and shallow water gas investments.

The Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board (NCDMB), she said, in line with local content requirement approved waivers for two shallow water gas projects.

“Nigeria plans 20 priority gas projects to deliver 4.6 BCFD by 2030, collaborating with major industry players like NNPC, SPDC, Seplat, Total Energies, Chevron, Sunlink, Amni, and Exxon Mobil,” she stressed.

According to her, the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative (PCNGI) was launched by the president in order to alleviate the harsh impact of petrol subsidy removal and support automobile sector switch to gas.

“These developments underscore Nigeria’s strategic investments, regulatory reforms, and infrastructure advancements aimed at boosting economic growth, job creation, and global market positioning. The Decade of Gas Secretariat continues to drive the nation’s energy sector forward,” she added.

In his presentation on upstream gas, Balogun highlighted the gas Network Code, which he said is a set of unified rules that ensures non-discriminatory access of a gas pipeline system network for the purpose of delivering commercial volumes of natural gas from upstream producers to the consumers in the downstream gas sector

The Gas Network Code, he stressed, was launched in 2020 by the defunct Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) as a critical regulatory tool required to guarantee access to natural gas in a safe, reliable, transparent, and viable commercial and economic basis across Nigeria

He stated that there had been an alignment between the midstream and downstream regulator and the industry stakeholders, which led to the development of a revised gas network code to address some critical changes.

To this end, Balogun pointed out that there’s a mandatory licensing of all stakeholders on the network, including transporters, shippers and agents.

He said that this was to ensure the development of applicable network connection (entry/exit) agreements between shippers and the network operator for better monitoring.