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Oil Price: Increased Gas Production Needed To Support Industrialisation
 
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Thu, 7 May 2015   ||   Nigeria,
 

As a way of reducing the long term impact of the oil price crunch on Nigeria’s economy, experts have reiterated the need to diversify the economy away from oil by reviving industrial revolution in the country.

However, speaking yesterday at a session hosted by the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN) at the ongoing 2015 Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, the group executive director, Gas and Power, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr David Ige, said that for to this to happen, the country needs to grow its gas supply capacity to about 6 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas per day.

Speaking on Natural Gas Development in Nigeria: A Compelling Investment Frontier in a Turbulent Oil Market, Ige explained that whilst the sector has grown gas production from 300 million cubic feet (mcf) per day to the present capacity of 2bcf, it would still need a further growth to support industrial revolution in the country.

He reiterated that the falling oil price calls for the need for the Nigerian oil industry to reposition itself while more focus should be concentrated on enabling industrialisation in Nigeria. Industries such as steel, petrochemical, cement, textile, amongst others, he said, if fully revived can help reduce the amount Nigeria spends on importing these goods.

But Ige, representing the group managing director of the NNPC at the forum, said, “If we project the requirement to support the industries listed above, the sector may need to grow gas further to about 5 to 6bcf per day by 2020.”

He told attendees that despite an annual investment of over $1 billion per year in the last four years on gas supply infrastructure development, there was still need for significant addition to infrastructure and supply growth as more kilometers of gas pipelines still need to be built to connect new markets of gas supply while increase in gas processing facilities is also needed.

While calling on investors to take advantage of these opportunities, he said that the policy thrust to support such investments have been laid out, adding that there’s no better time than now to invest in Nigeria’s gas sector.

Also speaking at the event, the managing director of Shell companies in Nigeria, Osagie Okunbor, said that given recent developments with oil prices at the international markets,many governments from the Middle East, America to sub-Saharan Africa are now looking at how to harness their gas potential.

 

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