NNPC: $40 billion investment needed to achieve gas plan

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) says $40 billion investment is needed to accomplish the nation’s gas plan.

Yusuf Usman, chief operating officer for gas and power at NNPC, made this known at a virtual forum on Wednesday.

President Muhammadu Buhari launched the ‘Decade of Gas in Nigeria’ on March 29, an ambitious plan by Nigeria to entirely power its economy with gas by the year 2030.

Buhari said the declaration of the decade of gas will set the tone for the development of the gas industry in the next ten years.

Speaking at the forum organised by the Association of Local Distributors of Gas (ALDG) was tagged “The Decade of Gas: Unlocking Opportunities in the Domestic Gas Market”, Usman said the decade of gas plan will create massive employment and generate 45,000 megawatt of power.

He said the NNPC targets between 7.4 to 10 billion cubit feet of gas in years to come, compared to its current 1.6 bcf supply capacity.

“In terms of benefits, we will generate 45,000 megawatts of power in terms of gas use, creating massive employment and import substitution,” he said.

“There are changes we need to look at to actualise the decade of gas. We see the huge amount of investment, both Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) that will come into the country upward of $40 billion or much more than that in order to achieve all the aggressive plans that that are outlined in the decade of gas.

“This investment will come in the upstream, midstream and downstream, but there are challenges as well because there have been a lot of announcements around funding for fossil fuels and these are some of the things we have to look at as we go forward and we need to figure out the announcement vis-a-vis the foreign estimate that we expect.”

Usman said by the NNPC is projecting an added gas sales of about 600 mmscfd in the ongoing year to hit 2.2 bcf by the end of 2021.

He noted that a major constraint in achieving local content through the programme is the difficult conditions placed by foreign lenders.

The NNPC official added that the corporation expects to grow about 10 gas-based industries as it works towards the 10-year plan.

According to him, plans are underway to expedite completion of ongoing gas projects in the country, including the Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano gas pipeline project.