Executive Director (Gas and Power) at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr David Ige, on Thursday reiterated the country’s resolve to reduce gas flaring in the next two years.

He said this at theAnnual Oloibiri Lecture Series of the Society of Petroleum Engineer’s (SPE) 2012 in Lagos.

Ige said that government had introduced measures that would address issues confronting gas flaring in the country.

“The government is poised to reduce gas flaring drastically in the next two years.

“Nigeria is the holder of the world’s seventh and Africa’s largest gas reserves of more than 187 trillion cubic feet.

“The country flares most of the gas it produces along with oil because it lacks the infrastructure to process it,” the director said.

According to him, the country has the potential to produce 600 trillion cubic feet reserves, adding that availability of gas had never been Nigeria’s problem.

“But what has remained challenging is getting enough gas to the power stations,” he said.

Ige said that the nation’s gas master plan was predicated on an anticipated aggressive demand increase of up to 25 per cent.

“Domestic projects such as methanol plants, gas-to-liquids plants, fertiliser plants, independent power projects and other LNG export plants like Brass LNG are also expected to stimulate demand.

“Nigeria produces 7.8 billion cubic feet of gas per day, out of which it utilises 4.5 billion.

“Government is looking at having three gas transmission pipeline system,” Ige said.

The director also explained that the gas master plan and the pipelines that would carry gas to different parts of the country “are expected to stimulate economic activities around the pipeline routes”.

He said that gas-related industries would also spring up and generate jobs for Nigerians.

“The focus on gas is also going to help in solving the power supply problems nationwide as gas shortages in the power stations would be a thing of the past,” he said.

Ige said that gas remained a major challenge to steady power supply in the country and promised that this would be addressed.

“We expect that by the end of this month, the gas pipeline to Olorunsogo Power Plant will be completed to open access to enable the plant produce electricity for transmission.

According to him, the government has segmented the gas master plan into short, medium and long-term.

He said that in the short term, government would supply gas to cement factories, industrial companies and boost allocations.

Ige said that government also planned to boost gas allocation to the West African Gas Pipeline Company (WAGPCo) by December.

In his welcome address, Mr Ikechukwu Okafor, the Chairman of SPE Nigeria Council, said that this year’s lecture marked the 56th anniversary of commercial oil exploration activity in Nigeria.

He recalled that the journey started with the discovery of Shell Oloibiri well 1 on Sunday January 15, 1956, adding that the annual lecture was aimed at reminding Nigerians where oil started from and use the opportunity to transform the economy.

“This event fulfils the part of SPE’s yearly activities to collect, disseminate, and change technical knowledge concerning the exploration, development and production of oil and gas resources and related technologies for the benefit of the general public.