The Federal Government has announced that gas production in Nigeria is steadily increasing, reaching 7.5 billion cubic feet per day and approaching 12 billion cubic feet per day.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, made this disclosure to journalists at a recent event in Lagos.
Ekpo stated that his primary goal for his second year in office, in alignment with the Decade of Gas initiative is to accelerate gas production and transform Nigeria into a gas-based economy.
“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 expressed optimism 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 added, “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 boasts substantial reserves of associated and non-associated gas, totaling 209.26 trillion cubic feet, according to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).
However, Nigerians are dealing with soaring cooking gas prices, which have risen from less than N1,000 per kilogramme in June to around N1,300 per kilogramme currently.
This article was written by Tamaraebiju Jide, a student at Elizade University
