The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has disclosed that the country’s proven natural gas reserves stood at 209.5 trillion cubic feet (tcf) as at January 1, 2022.
Chief executive officer of NMDPRA, Farouk Ahmed, made this known at the 2022 Nigeria International Energy Summit (NIES) on Wednesday in Abuja.
Ahmed, who was represented at the event by Ogbugo Ukoha, executive director, distribution systems, storage and retailing infrastructure, NMDPRA, said the new figure signifies a major increase of 2.97tcf in proven natural gas reserves, representing a 1.42 percent increase from the 206.53tcf recorded on January 1, 2021.
NAN quoted him as saying: Thankfully, Nigeria is endowed with enormous petroleum resources currently put at 37 billion barrels of crude oil reserves and 209.5tcf of natural gas reserves as at January 2022,”
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These resource size puts Nigeria at an enviable position within the comity of global hydrocarbon producers.
“Even in this era of the global energy transition, the oil and gas sector remains pivotal to the Nigerian economy since it provides the needed cash flow for the functioning of other sectors of the economy but for how long?”
He said the country needs to vigorously contemplate energy strategies amid the shift in demand and clamour for cleaner fuels.
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“It is imperative that going forward all stakeholders must deliberately adopt strategies that embolden and underpin these three core principles,”
“Adoption of low carbon technologies across all operations in the oil and gas value chain, deepening and penetration of natural gas utilisation domestically to increase energy sufficiency and reduce energy poverty and invest conscientiously in cleaner fuels and renewables.”
