- There is an ongoing engagement on the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline Project to create a pipeline that will pass through 13 African countries and to Europe.
- Kyari advocates for increasing the energy supply gap.
The Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mr. Mele Kyari, said NNPCL will take the Final Investment Decision (FID) on the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline (NMGP) Project in December 2024.
Kyari said there was an ongoing engagement on the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline Project (NMGP), which is presently at an advanced stage. This is to create a pipeline that will pass through 13 African countries and to Europe.
The GCEO also advocated a differentiated approach to attaining energy transition for the African continent. He disclosed this yesterday during a leadership dialogue session at the ongoing CERAWeek Conference in Houston, United States.
According to him, energy transition is challenging for countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, because the situations are different geographically. He stated that a number of the countries were dealing with energy availability, not transition, which links closely to energy security.
“The world has seen all the challenges thrown up recently by geopolitical events. It is clear that before the energy transition, countries must first attain security of energy supply in their countries.
“You cannot talk about energy security when it is unavailable. In most of sub-Saharan Africa, 70 per cent of the population don’t have access to clean cooking fuels. Therefore, you must fill the supply gap first,” he noted.
A statement by NNPCL’s Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Olufemi Soneye, quoted Kyari as saying that although people talked about using renewables to close the energy transition gap, the money for the renewables, too, must be found.
He disclosed that, currently, NNPC’s focus was to build its capacity to deliver gas to the domestic market and beyond, stressing that as a gas-endowed country, Nigeria must utilise its abundant gas resources to provide the alternative fuel it needs.
The NNPC boss said, “If you insist on completing the substitution today, then you have to deal with the supply problem. For us today, the transition must be differentiated. Even if Africa decides to switch off its fossil fuels, it only accounts for just about three per cent of the entire global emissions.”
“We understand the arguments towards attaining energy transition, but the cheapest way to achieve that is through gas. We see clear opportunities that gas creates. Today, we are building a number of trunk lines and other gas infrastructure that will supply gas to several gas networks,” Kyari added.