Nigeria has offered to step in as an alternative gas supplier to Europe in the face of the war now raging between Russia and Ukraine and its negative consequence in gas supply to Europe.
This is even as Nigeria also called on the European Union (EU), to step up investments in gas and hydrocarbon in Nigeria to be able to meet the bloc’s energy needs.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, who spoke when the EU Ambassadors to Nigeria, Samuela Isopi, paid a visit in his office in Abuja, stressed that Nigeria is ready to step in as alternative gas supplier to Europe.
A statement today, March 27, by his Senior Adviser on Media and Communications, Horatius Egua, quoted the minister as calling on EU to encourage its oil and gas companies, such as Shell, Eni, and Total Energies to scale up investments in the Nigerian gas sector.
“One of the things we warned against earlier was the speed with which EU was taking away investments in fossil fuels.
“We warned that the speed was faster than they were developing renewable energy. You can see now that what we were warning against is what is happening now,” the minister said.
He told the delegation that what stunted growth in the development of gas in Nigeria is fresh investments, and called for a change of attitude on the part of EU if its request to increase supplies to Europe would be realised.
According to the minister, one of the biggest challenges the sector is facing is lack of investments.
“In the last 10 years, over 70 billion dollars worth of investments came to Africa, but sadly less than four billion dollars came to Nigeria.
“Surprisingly, we are the biggest in Africa. If we cannot attract investments to Nigeria, you know where we are heading.
“You have been our long time friend. As at today, our gas reserve is one of the biggest in the world. We have a proven gas reserve of 206 tcf and if we really focus on gas exploitation we can get up to 600 tcf.
“We are already building gas infrastructure such as the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) pipeline project, expected to take gas to Algeria, and the West Africa Gas Pipeline project designed to take gas to Morroco.”
Sylva said that after the Russia-Ukrainian war, EU must have a buffer or an alternative source of gas, and collaboration with Nigeria in that regard is paramount.
He reiterated Nigeria’s commitment to working with the EU to bridge the gap in terms of gas, adding that from the Russian-Ukranian crisis, it is evident that gas has been weaponised and unless it created an alternative, it would only get worse.
He reassured the EU diplomats of Nigeria’s readiness to be an alternative supplier of gas to the EU, but urged its companies operating in the country to investment more here.
“We would like to be reliable partners to solve the energy problem in Europe and we can only achieve this by working together. It is only when investment in these areas is increased that Niger is can meet that obligation,” Sylva said.
He emphased the need for transfer of technology in gas and renewable energy, adding that Africa must be allowed to continue to exploit its hydrocarbon deposits to develop the continent.
In her response, Isopi urged Nigeria to take advantage of the opportunity offered by the present crisis in Europe to shore up gas supplies to Europe.
She appealed to Nigeria to step into that gap supply chain as an alternative to Russia, adding that the country must not allow the opportunity to pass it by.
On the security situation in the Niger Delta that drastically impacted on gas supply in the last few years, Isopi called on the Nigerian government to step up security in the region to guarantee gas supply to EU member states.
She expressed concern over the spate of attacks on Shell, Eno and Total Energies’s gas infrastructure that led to the declaration of force majure by the companies and noted that the development was of great concern to Europe.
The envoy said that the EU is however, reassured by the recent visit by Sylva and other top government officials to the site of the vandalised infrastructure in the region.
The French Ambassador to Nigeria, Emmaunelle Blatmann, who went back memory lane on the diplomatic relations between Nigeria and France, said that in spite of the current challenges in the sector, French companies are ready to commence new investments in Nigeria.
Other ambassadors who spoke in support of a strengthened economic and diplomatic relations between the EU and Nigeria, were the Spanish Ambassador to Nigeria Juan Sell, Portuguese Ambassador Luis Barros, and Italian Deputy Head of Mission, Tarek Chazli.
