Gas masterplan will generate $25 billion annually

The Ministry of Petroleum Resources foresees that the Nigerian Gas Master Plan will generate $25 billion annually (about N375 billion) in the next few years.

Goni Sheikh, the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, gave the projection at the 1st Nigerian Gas Association Business Forum in Lagos.

He said the investment would be centred on gas processing, transmissions and downstream utilisation, adding that the master plan’s key objectives were to encourage the use of gas in power and other industries for multiplier effects.

Sheikh, also, noted that the Master Plan would make Nigeria a strategic player in the global gas market and ensure energy security for the country.

The Perm Sec revealed that the federal government would soon establish two petrochemical and fertiliser companies, five fertiliser-blending plants, and a methanol plant and a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) distribution plant.

“These definitely will position Nigeria as the undisputed regional hub for gas based industries such as fertilisers, petrochemicals and methanol,” he said.

Nigeria boasts of a growing gas industry because the product was discovered late. At present its proven gas reserve (the 7th largest in the world) had reached 182 Tcf.

Sheikh noted that the country’s gas reserve “is just about 32 per cent of the gas potential of Nigeria”.

“All crude oil reservoirs naturally contain gas but not all gas reservoirs contain oil,” he said.

The permanent secretary said that over the last few years, the demand for Nigerian natural gas had grown substantially at the international market.

Sheikh said that the domestic demand growth was driven principally by the power sector, industrial consumers and developers of fertiliser, methanol plants, among others.