NIGERIA'S march towards getting into the bracket of top global economic powers got a boost yesterday as President Goodluck Jonathan launched a gas-driven economic roadmap.
The ambitious plan, code-named "Gas Revolution: Rebirth of Nigeria's industrialisation," was also used as an occasion for the signing of the Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) among the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Xenel of Saudi Arabia for the construction of a petrochemical plant, and Nagarjuna of India for the setting up of two fertiliser plants.
At the event, Jonathan said Nigeria no longer has any excuse for the absence of productive industries and the high rate of unemployment considering its enormous proven gas reserves put at 187 trillion cubic feet (tcf).
"Today (yesterday), we take a small but important step in a conscious effort to reverse that trend. This marks the beginning of what I believe will be an amazing journey of transformation of our own destiny and the restoration of Nigeria into the league of nations, which has leveraged its strength in the abundance of natural gas to transform the lives of present and future generations," he said.
He added that the aggressive and forceful nature of his administration's ambition to re-industrialise the country was akin to a revolution, which could turn around Nigeria's economic fortune with a potential to creating over 600,000 jobs.
Listing the benefits of the gas-based projects to the overall development of the nation's economy, the President said apart from massive job creation, the gas pipelines from the South to the North will ensure adequate supply of natural gas to the textile and allied industries, which had shut down as a result of high cost of fuel oil, adding that the petrochemical and fertiliser plants would signal the end of gas flaring in the country as they would provide a ready market for all excess gas.
"The investments agreed today (yesterday) will result in foreign direct investment of about $10 billion (N15 trillion) over the next three years," Jonathan told industry executives, government officials and diplomats at the launch of the plan in Abuja, adding that, "the economic impact of this agenda will be endless in terms of employment and wealth creation."
"The fertiliser plants and their customised blending plants will result in a radical transformation of our nation's agricultural productivity from subsistence farming to full scale industrial farming. The concept of customised blending plants as introduced by this project will ensure that the fertiliser is formulated to suit the type of soil in the zone resulting in enhanced productivity. Increased productivity will lead to the establishment of many agro-processing industries to cope with the production growth that will emerge," he explained.
Also at the event, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, explained that the industrialisation agenda was aimed at transforming Nigeria from a country that uses its gas resources only as fuel for industries to the one, which uses gas as raw material (feedstock) for producing secondary goods.
Her words: "These industries have an amazing transformational impact on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of any economy as they are capable of stimulating many secondary industries, which in turn enable wealth creation. Through these industries, we add value to natural gas, a step away from our historical approach of just exporting the raw gas."
Besides the petrochemical plant, which she said would be built around the Koko Free Trade Zone in Delta State and the two fertiliser plants billed to be located in Lagos and Delta states, the minister said a Gas Central Processing Facility for gathering and processing wet gas from the well and producing dry gas and natural gas liquids will be built at Obiafu, Rivers State, by the Agip/Oando Consortium.
She said the CPF at Obiafu was only one of three of such projects planned for processing gas, adding, "with these CPFs, we expect a significant boost in production of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), resulting in much lower price and increased penetration across households. With the dredging of the River Niger, we will be using the inland waterways to move LNG as far North to Lokoja, where an LNG bottling and distribution hub is planned to be located for the Northern Region. We expect that this will begin to materialise by 2014."
On the choice of Xenel and Nagarjuna as partners for the petrochemical and fertiliser plants, Alison-Madueke said both companies were sector leaders in Saudi Arabia and India, adding: "I am confident that we have assembled a credible crop of investors that will champion this agenda, alongside NNPC."
The high point of the event was the signing of the binding MoU by NNPC Group Managing Director, Austen Oniwon, and representatives of Xenel, Mr. Khalid Ibrahim Zagzoog, and Mr. Kanumuri Satya Raju for Nagarjuna Fertilisers and Chemical Ltd. Mr. Giro Antonio Pagano and Mr. Wale Tinubu signed for the Agip/Oando Consortium.
Chevron's Managing Director in Nigeria, Andrew Fawthrop, said: "We've agreed to begin with 175 million (cubic feet) of gas per day. We will deliver the gas once the pipelines and infrastructure are in place."
India's Nagarjuna Fertilisers said it is committed to building two fertiliser plants, an investment of around $2.5 billion, while Saudi Arabian firm, Natpet, a subsidiary of Alujain, said it would invest $3.5 billion in the petrochemical plant.
Source: Nigeria targets 600,000 jobs as N15tr gas projects begin (http://ngrguardiannews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=42727:nigeria-targets-600000-jobs-as-n15tr-gas-projects-begin-&catid=1:national&Itemid=559)