Among other things, the Federal Government is working
towards the production of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as an alternative
fuel to the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) petrol this year.
The
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva that
revealed this in an interview with the Nigeria Television Authority
(NTA), said that although the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) had made
several trips to the National Assembly without translating into law,
this year shall be its last trip to the federal lawmakers.
He based his hope in the passage of the bill on the renewed relationship between the legislature and the executive.
The
video clip of his interview which The Nation obtained on Wednesday,
noted that the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Refinery will
commence in the first quarter of 2020.
Also slated for
commencement this year, according to him, is the construction of the
Ajaokuta, Kaduna and Kano gas pipeline project.
The project,
which is expected to take gas from the Niger Delta to Kano, is also
targeted at feeding the industries in the area with gas.
He
lamented that Nigeria is a very rich gas country, yet it has the lowest
Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) penetration in the world. The minister
said that the government is working to ensure LPG penetration this year.
Besides,
he revealed that Nigeria has never looked for gas except the one it
found from oil production. Now, according to him, the federal government
is to begin gas exploration.
His words: “The gas sector will
definitely grow. Nigeria is described as a gas territory with oil in it.
Unfortunately, we have not taken advantage of our gas resources. All
the gas we have found in Nigeria has been found while looking for oil
not looking for gas. “We are going to have some targeted exploration for
gas. And we also want the people of Nigeria to have an alternative to
PMS. We want to see how gas can be converted to CNG.
“And also we
are trying to improve the LPG penetration. Unfortunately, Nigeria has
the lowest LPG penetration in the world. We are very rich in gas. This
year we are going to focus on this area.”
Stressing that most
nations are now exiting fossil fuel for renewable energy as gas, he
confirmed that Nigeria was still far from joining the race for renewable
energy utilization.
Meanwhile, the minister said that at the
recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Nigeria was able to add its voice
to the global discussion of transition to renewable energy.
He
said that “Gas is a lesser source of carbon emission and we have
abundant gas resource. So also the world has to take us into account of
its discussion in the transition to renewables. It is also in those
kinds of forum that you can put our point of view forward.”
Asked
to state what he has achieved so far in office as a minister, Sylva
said that he is already in the process of rejigging the PIB.
He noted that the sector under his watch has been able to pass the Deep Offshore Amendment Bill.
He
added that “We have also been able to superintendent over the discovery
of oil in the North East. The evaluation is ongoing but oil has been
discovered in the North East. We have been able to take FID on Train 7.
These are what have happened and we are very ready to move on this year.”
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