The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva has insisted that gas is Nigeria’s pathway to energy transition.
The Minister said this at the launch of the Seplat’s Tree4Life Planting Campaign Tuesday in Abuja.
Sylva explained that Nigeria still requires fossil fuels, especially gas, as its baseload energy source to address energy poverty and power supply.
“We have declared gas as our transition fuel, our pathway to net-zero carbon emission. This presents investment opportunities given the oil and gas reserves which can be commercialised,” he said.
According to the minister, PIA proposes a fiscal regime that encourages investment in order to monetise existing reserves in the short to medium term, and generous incentives to enable development, distribution, penetration and utilisation of gas.
He added that a number of enablers and initiatives which support the realisation of the full potential of the gas sector such as the development of critical infrastructure and systems Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) pipeline, Nigeria/Morocco pipeline, Trans-Saharan Pipeline and the Nigerian Gas Transportation Network Code are all geared towards achieving the decade of gas.
He said: “The PIA will enable a lot of gas business but it behooves operators in the industry to also take advantage of the opportunities provided by the PIA to actually deepen the gas business in Nigeria.
And to achieve that, we have declared year 2021-2030 as the decade of gas. And we are not just declaring it; we have built a roadmap o achieving the objective of the decade of gas. We are also creating corridors to deepen the gas business, the AKK is a corridor, and we are creating across Nigeria from the Southern part to the North. We are also creating another corridor from the West African Gas Pipeline al the way to Morocco.
“These are all opportunities that the government is putting in place; it should be taken advantage of by operators,” he added.
Sylva acknowledged Seplat and the Tree for Life Initiative which is aimed at reducing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. According to him, it is a commendable commitment towards net-zero Initiative.
“Also in line with Mr. President’s commitment on net-zero carbon emissions by 2060. This requires initiatives such as this being undertaken by Seplat today, as well as sustained financial assistance, technology transfer and capacity building from international partners willing and able to assist us in this regard,” he said.
He also used the opportunity of the event to commend Seplat on their recent acquisition of the shares of Exxon Mobil companies in USA. He noted that “such investments which are underpinned by responsible policies that ensure the achievement of net-zero are commendable and appreciated by the Government and the good people of Nigeria.”
