Gas production nears 12 billion cubic feet/day – FG

Gas production in Nigeria is growing from 7.5 billion cubic feet per day and is inching to 12 bcf per day, the Federal Government has said.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, disclosed this to journalists at a recent event in Lagos.

Ekpo said his major focus during his second year in office will be to ramp up gas production and turn Nigeria into a gas economy, in line with the Decade of Gas initiative.

“In the Decade of Gas, we are looking at turning Nigeria into a gas economy by 2030, in which case, we are looking at growing from 7.5 billion cubic feet to about 12 bcf. So, we are progressing in that direction to make sure we have gas sufficiency in the country,” he stated.

Since the Federal Government adopted gas as the country’s transition fuel, there have been concerns about how sustainable gas production in Nigeria is.

However, the gas minister expressed optimism that more gas would be produced, especially as some international oil companies divested to deep water.

“The sustainability plan is all about producing more gas from the gas resources,” Ekpo assured Nigerians.

He added, “You know that some of the IOCs are moving now from the shallow water to the deep water where you have a huge gas deposit. So, with the commitment of President Bola Tinubu, there is that assurance that we will have sufficient gas to sustain what we are looking at,” he assured.

Nigeria’s reserves of associated gas and non-associated gas stand at 209.26 trillion cubic feet, according to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission.

Meanwhile, Nigerians are complaining about the rising cost of cooking gas which now sells at around N1,300 per kilogramme from less than N1,000 in June.