An expert in oil and gas, has urged Nigeria to develop its gas projects in order to break into the European market by taking advantage of the gap left by Russia’s lack of oil supply to Europe.
Olanrewaju Aladeitan, a Professor of Energy and Natural Resources, University of Abuja, said the major off-taker of Nigerian gas was in Europe and there were on-going viable projects to actualise that.
He said that the gas shortages in continental Europe, the UK, and NATO allies were caused by the Russian-Ukrainian war and Russian Gazprom’s strategic position as a gas producer and provider.
“Now ordinarily, it is elementary business logic that vacuum created by the non-supply of oil by Russia should be taken advantage of by any other gas producer and this is where countries like Qatar comes in.
“So North Europe is looking at where to readily get supply to make up for the shortfall or non-supply from Russia.
“So, definitely, there is an implication, there is an effect of the Russian special operation or invasion on Ukraine on gas supply.
“Now gas countries, of which Nigeria is one and a country like Qatar are willing to take advantage of that opportunity of course, because there is a demand.
“But how do you take advantage of that particular gap that has been left as a result of the decision of Gasprom to withdraw supply from that region,” he asked.
He claimed that Nigeria took purposeful steps to develop the gas business in order to be ready to seize the opportunity. Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) was the first company to do this.
Mr Aladeitan said that this was done to reduce gas flares and to tap on the nation’s gas reserves’ economic potential.
He said the major off-taker of Nigerian gas was in Europe, but how to reach there, and derive the utmost benefit, had also been of concern to the country.
According to him, it is why the idea of the TSGP project has always been there as piping the gas all the way through will cost less because the cost of transportation through the vessel was high.
“So if we can achieve the same aim through the Trans-Sahara pipeline, it will be fine.
“We also have the West African Gas Pipeline, which passes through Benin Republic, Togo to Ghana, and that has also been in the works for some time.
“This is what has informed Nigeria looking at constructing these pipelines to Europe and the gas can flow from there,” he said.
