Gas is the logical transition fuel towards realizing a reliable, affordable and sustainable energy supply, Seplat Energy, one of Nigeria’s independent energy companies, has said.
The Director, New Energy, Seplat Energy, Effiong Okon, stated this whilst delivering a keynote speech during the Gas Stakeholders Conversation panel session at the just-concluded 2024 Nigeria International Energy Summit (NIES) held in Abuja.
On behalf of Seplat Energy Plc, Okon was making a case for gas development as a solution to Nigeria’s immediate problems and a longer-term transition fuel.
“Increasing the supply of reliable, affordable and sustainable energy is Nigeria’s greatest challenge; but clearly gas is the logical transition fuel we need to realise this,” Okon said.
He linked gas development to power, Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) export, Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) production, fertilizer production, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) production, and building materials production, among others.
Today, he noted, Nigeria has an acute housing and infrastructure shortage, but no commercially viable substitute for production of building materials, like cement, glass, steel, and others.
At the moment, he said about 90,000 deaths per year is recorded as a result of biomass cooking, adding that rising population presents an urgent need to improve agricultural production.
Apart from funding all of the above with gas, Okon said the country can also reduce reliance on petrol, increase and decarbonise domestic transport fuel if we leverage on gas. These, he said, would in turn strengthen the country’s focus on sustainability.
Making reference to the International Energy Administration (IEA) Global Energy Outlook 2022, he said natural gas production in Africa was expected to grow by 15 percent between 2020 and 2030, driven mainly by new projects in Egypt, Nigeria and Mozambique.
Okon stressed that the Nigerian energy industry must focus on end-to-end solutions to unlock the full value of Nigeria’s gas, noting that exploration, production, gas processing and delivery of gas to last mile remain germane to maximizing the dividends of the resource.
For a sustainable gas development programme in Nigeria, the Seplat New Energy Director emphasised the need for bankability and access to low-cost capital; use of technology, Internet of Things (IoT) and smart metering to reduce Aggregate Technical Commercial and Collection (ATC&C) losses; and technology-enabled revenue delivery opportunities to aid fund collection.
