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Daukoru identifies prospects,
challenges for Nigeria�s LNG
By Bassey
Udo,
Snr
Correspondent,
Abuja
Special
Adviser to President Olusegun Obasanjo on Petroleum and Energy, Edmund
Daukoru, says the future holds brighter prospects for the growth of
Nigeria�s gas industry, particularly in the Liquified Natural Gas (LNG)
business.
Daukoru,
who spoke on "Prospects and challenges for LNG development in Nigeria" at
the fifth CWC Annual LNG Summit in Rome, noted that with the fast pace of
growth in the world�s energy demand, there was bound to be enormous
pressure for Nigeria�s gas resources in the near future saying
that
with the
decline in indigenous gas production in the United States and Europe in
recent times, there would be increased reliance outside their traditional
sources from Canada and Russia to make-up for the shortfall.
Recalling
World Bank�s projections that gas would overtake oil as the fuel of choice
in the second half of the century, he stressed the need for a
corresponding change in the energy mix by developing Nigeria�s LNG to
support its supplies to the global gas market.
Nigeria,
he pointed out, holds a significant proportion of the world�s gas reserves
in the Niger Delta region and the deep offshore of the Gulf of Guinea,
adding that a combination of abundant low cost reserves and its strategic
geographic location relative to the United States and European Union (EU)
markets and offers tremendous opportunities for LNG development in Nigeria
in the coming years.
With the
country�s proven gas reserves of over 187 trillion cubic feet (TCF) from
the Niger Delta, and a potential to double or triple that volume in the
Deepwater of the Gulf of Guinea, Daukoru said government has a long-term
plan to turn Nigeria�s economic base from oil to a combination of oil and
gas by building a gas business that would generate as much revenue from
gas as from oil by the year 2010.
He
identified the major challenges government is facing in developing the gas
sector as including the drive to end the flaring of associated gas and the
provision of an appropriate framework for the development of natural gas
to meet growing demands as well as the aspirations of government and other
stakeholders. Apart from opening up acreages in the Chad and Anambra Basin
that have remained dormant, he said other concessions have also been
identified in the Niger Delta to new investors to encourage the
development of Onshore Delta portfolio.
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