Amidst growing need for gas, Nigeria seeks EU investment in Africa’s gas deposits

Apparently latching on the growing need for gas supply to Europe, Nigeria is asking Europe to provide a policy framework for their banks to facilitate investment in Africa’s oil and gas sector.

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, says Europe should significantly back investment in gas and provide a policy framework that enables European banks to invest in hydrocarbons across Africa.

Sylva who made the comment at the Gastech conference in Milan, said, with 600 million people living without electricity in Africa and 740 billion feet, 22.2 billion meters of gas reserves on the continent and that there is need to increase gas production.

Increased gas production would also help the continent’s 900 million people who live without access to clean cooking fuels, provide massive job opportunities and allow the emergence of a new alternative supplier for Europe, a “win-win for Europe and Africa”, he said.

And it is in Europe’s own interest “to reduce discriminatory investment rules that the banks are doing”, Sylva said.

The Minister said that he had previously told European officials that they “must provide the appropriate policy framework for your banks, so that they can invest in oil and gas”.

The EU’s energy taxonomy, set to come into force in January 2023, is a voluntary tool and a signpost for private investors towards climate neutrality. But investment from large European banks in oil and gas fell in 2021, unlike their north American counterparts.