By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has reiterated its commitment towards utilising Nigeria’s abundant gas resources to trigger Nigeria’s industrialisation and economic development.
This was the core focus revealed by the state oil firm’s Executive Vice President, Upstream, Mrs Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, during a panel session at the ongoing 2024 CERAWeek conference in Houston, the United States.
Mrs Eyesan, whose session addressed the theme, What are the Choices for Upstream Strategies?, said Nigeria is a predominantly gas-rich country with over 200 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas that can be leveraged for the country’s industrialisation and economic development.
She noted that NNPC Ltd’s plans to deepen gas utilisation domestically for industrialisation and ensure that the entire country feels and optimises the use of the resource.
She said the company is dedicated to opening avenues for infrastructural gas development through various gas projects spread across the country.
“Our focus is how do we move from predominantly oil player to gas player and not just for gas for the sake of gas but gas for power generation, and for industrialization, “she stated.
Mrs Eyesan observed that the NNPC Ltd is also focused on emission reduction and gas flare-out.
“We want to capture all gas flared, utilise it for domestic use and ultimately, increase our energy transition footprints.
“NNPC is keying into the government agenda of using gas as a transition fuel and for us, we want to ensure not only the domestic gas market, but we also expand that to the region and internationally,” she said.
She used the opportunity to call on African countries to collaborate to ensure the even distribution of energy resources.
Mrs Eyesan said collaboration is key, as not all countries within the sub-region are endowed with equal proportions of energy resources.
“For us to ensure that we continue to subsist within the sub-region, we must be willing to work collaboratively and ensure that there is even distribution of energy resources we have across the sub-region.”
On energy transition, Mrs Eyesan stated that the subject had evolved over the years, adding that for Sub-Saharan Africa, the narrative has been on how to address the energy poverty issue, while for Nigeria, the NNPC Ltd. will continue to look at areas where it has the competitive advantage to define the strategy.
Aduragbemi Omiyale 
Business Post Contributor