No To Gas Pipelines To Europe 

Coming on the heels of the smoldering war between Ukraine and Russia, which currently holds out an impendence to gas supply to European countries, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited said it was working on building pipelines that would convey gas from Nigeria to Europe.
The NNPC’s Group Managing Director, Mele Kyari, disclosed this while speaking virtually at the Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum. The forum was hosted in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). He stated that Nigeria was gradually moving away from dirtier fuel to cleaner energy, and added that gas had been picked by the Federal Government as the country’s transition fuel.
Kyari said, “What we are doing is some kind of replacement such that we move from the dirtier fuel to cleaner fuel which is gas. And what we had to do is to build the enormous gas infrastructure required to ensure that there is sufficient supply of gas into the domestic market and provide some for the international market.
“And more than that, within the West African context, you will see that energy inefficiency and poverty that you see in Nigeria is also in many West African countries around us. Therefore, we are trying to see how we can build a network of pipeline infrastructure that will deliver gas and potentially to jump into Europe through Morocco or through Algeria.”
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, similarly spoke to a delegation from the European Union (EU) saying that Nigeria was ready to step in as an alternative gas supplier to Europe. Sylva, however, urged the EU to step up investments in gas and hydrocarbon in Africa’s giant so that the country would be able to help meet its energy needs.
Apart from being amongst the leading oil and gas producers in Africa in 2022 with over 37 billion barrels of crude oil reserves, Nigeria, no doubt, has the potential to improve its energy exports to Europe and help address anticipated crude oil and natural gas shortages. With the EU planning to ban crude oil imports from Russia by increasing trade with other non-Russian economies and the Russian government promising to cut gas supplies if sanctions from Western countries continue, potential supply disruptions to Europe are anticipated.
Following Russia’s war with Ukraine, it has become more pressing than ever that Europe finds new energy sources, whether gas or renewables. But, switching to renewables takes time, and gas is the transition fuel of choice while Europe expands its renewable energy capacity. So, the short to medium-term solution is to find other gas sources. This is an opportunity for Nigeria to increase gas export and greatly improve its revenue profile.
Nigeria’s massive production capacity in 2022 will certainly place the country among the top three producers in Africa and a potential supplier to meet demand in Europe.  The country has an estimated gas reserve of 209 trillion cubic feet and will produce 1,780 billion cubic feet in 2022, up from 1,450 billion feet in 2021. With this portfolio, Europe can truly look to Nigeria as a potential supplier. This, indeed, is a positive.
Another positive is the enactment of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) which will assist with the increase in international majors and investors entering Nigeria. The PIA is expected to provide clarity on taxation, investment, and licensing that previously slowed down project deployment. When fully operational, the law will boost investment in oil and gas upstream activities to improve exploration, production, infrastructure development, and the country’s energy portfolio.
However, while the gas deal with the EU has enormous economic prospects for the country, the Federal Government must ensure that there is no further delay in tackling upstream issues like vandalism of infrastructure, a continued lack of investment in new exploration activities, and political instability including civil unrest in the oil and gas-rich regions. These factors have kept on disrupting the country’s ability to optimise oil and gas production and increase exports. If not efficiently handled, the planned export of gas to Europe will be a wild goose chase.
Although Nigeria is rich in oil and gas resources, it still does not have adequate infrastructure such as a functioning refinery. To utilise its oil and gas resources effectively, the nation needs to first build more infrastructure locally to process its energy. Additionally, our current natural gas-producing fields are expected to see a steep decline as we approach the mid-2020s. Majors including ExxonMobil, Shell, and Total Energies are expected to diversify their portfolios from 2022 onwards and exit the market.
Furthermore, it is worth noting that more than 50 per cent of the Nigerian population is still living in energy poverty as the country has been unable to provide energy for its citizens. It can hardly be comprehended why the government’s priority is to export natural gas while there is a severe dearth of the product for domestic use. Hence, the gas project should be put on hold until the impending issues are resolved for Nigeria to be a ready alternative for Europe in situations of urgency.
Even the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) is exorbitant and unaffordable. Nigerians have consistently cried out to President Muhammadu Buhari over the high cost of the LPG, otherwise called cooking gas, in the country, prodding him to take drastic measures to crash the price of the product in the interest of the masses. The cost of acquiring a 12.5 kg cylinder of household cooking gas increased to N8,500, as of March 28, 2022, from N7,000 recorded in September 2021.
The persistent hike in the price of cooking gas fused with the waning purchasing power of the average Nigerian does not bode well for the ceaseless adoption of LPG by both rural and urban dwellers; it is outrightly counterproductive to the government’s widely publicised LPG policy. Considering that LPG is environment-friendly, convenient, and safe, there is a need for government’s direct intervention to make the commodity more affordable to most Nigerians.