Gas production close to 12 billion cubic feet/day -FG
Tony Folarin
Gas production in Nigeria is reportedly growing from 7.5 billion cubic feet per day and is inching close to 12 bcf per day, the Federal Government has disclosed.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, made this known to journalists at a recent event in Lagos.
Ekpo noted that his major focus during his second year in office is to ramp up gas production and turn Nigeria into a gas economy, in line with the Decade of Gas initiative.
“In the Decade of Gas, we are looking at turning Nigeria into a gas economy by 2030, in which case, we are looking at growing from 7.5 billion cubic feet to about 12 bcf. So, we are progressing in that direction to make sure we have gas sufficiency in the country,” he stated.
Since the Federal Government adopted gas as the country’s transition fuel, there have been concerns about how sustainable gas production in Nigeria is.
However, the gas minister said he was optimistic that more gas would be produced, especially as some international oil companies divested to deep water.
“The sustainability plan is all about producing more gas from the gas resources,” Ekpo assured Nigerians.
He said, “You know that some of the IOCs are moving now from the shallow water to the deep water where you have a huge gas deposit. So, with the commitment of President Bola Tinubu, there is that assurance that we will have sufficient gas to sustain what we are looking at,” he assured.
Nigeria’s reserves of associated gas and non-associated gas stand at 209.26 trillion cubic feet, according to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission.
