Renewed exploration pushes Nigeria’s gas reserves to 206.53tcf

Nigeria’s proven gas deposits has risen to 206.53 trillion cubic feet (tcf) from the 203.16tcf declared last year, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) said yesterday, in Abuja.

Speaking at the Nigeria International Petroleum Summit, Director of DPR, Auwalu Sarki disclosed that indigenous oil, and gas companies were now contributing as much as 33 per cent to the nation’s crude oil reserves and about 30 per cent of gas reserves.

While the local operators’ contribution to the reserves was less than 10 million barrels in 2005, it has grown significantly to about 62 million barrels in 2020.

Speaking on the gas reserves, Auwalu attributed the growth to recent efforts being made on gas exploration in the country, especially the “Decade of Gas Initiative’.

The Federal Government had last year put the country’s total gas reserves at 203.16 tcf, representing a marginal increase of 1.16tcf or 0.57 per cent from the 202tcf recorded in 2019. The recent increase implies a growth of over three trillion.

Auwalu said: “Nigeria attained the target of 200tcf of natural gas reserves by the Reserve Declaration as at January 1, 2019, before the 2020 target. Thereafter, government set a target to attain a reserve position of 202 tcf by 2030”.

He noted that independent companies were driving value addition to gas, adding that acquisition of divested assets as well as accelerated appraisal and development efforts are other driving factors.

To him, the country is already gaining from the deliberate national efforts to boost indigenous participation in the sector.

The Chairman of Nigeria Gas Association and Managing Director, Shell Nigeria Gas, Ed Ubong, who spoke at the event said gas only accounts for five per cent of Africa’s energy mix.

“Nigeria is sitting on a large, huge resource base of gas, but how much gas are we producing? We are a top ten country when we talk of what we have but when you talk of what we are actually producing, we begin to sit back but we are in the top 20 ranges,” he stated.

Earlier at the event, the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva, had said there was need for the industry to move beyond ‘lips service’ on gas development.

“I want to see a holistic roadmap and action plan that provides the appropriate leverage for the way forward in delivering the Decade of Gas vision. The critical milestone that must be achieved should be clearly stated with short, medium and long term strategies”, the Minister said at the end of the four-day event.