NNPC building pipelines for gas supply to Europe – GMD

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited says it is currently working on building pipelines to deliver gas from Nigeria to Europe.

The NNPC’s Group Managing Director, Mele Kyari, disclosed this on Monday while speaking virtually at the Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum. The forum was hosted in the United Arab Emirates.

He stated that Nigeria was moving away from dirty fuel to cleaner energy, adding that gas had been picked by the Federal Government as Nigeria’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.”

He added, “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.”

On Friday, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, told a delegation from the European Union that Nigeria was ready to step in as an alternative gas supplier to Europe.

Sylva, however, urged the European Union to step up investments in gas and hydrocarbon in Nigeria so that the country would be able to help meet the EU energy needs.

His call came on the heels of the festering war between Ukraine and Russia, which currently posed a threat to gas supply to European countries.