latest news, breaking news, business, finance analysis, comments and views from Nigeria :: Businessday

•With projects to ensure more efficient utilisation of gas

Nigeria is the sixth  largest producer   of crude oil in the  Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Africa after Algeria . The current power generation in Nigeria as of today is estimated at less than 6,000 megawatt. 
This is a far cry from the projected power requirement that would adequately sustain our industrial and domestic activities in the quest to be among the industrialised nations in the 21st Century. No doubt Nigeria is undergoing an energy crisis. This results in a disparity between the actual energy generated (useful power) and what is available for consumption in the distribution network via the national grid. 
This deficiency is a major handicap militating against the government in the planning and execution of her programme towards the actualisation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and the desire to be among the 20 biggest economies by the year 2020. 
There are numerous gas development projects scattered all over the country, driven by the government through multinational oil and gas companies in joint venture partnership with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). 
The purpose of these projects is to ensure a more efficient utilisation of the gas resources for power generation to cope with our multifarious energy needs in the country. These projects include: 
• NLNG (Bonny) Trains 7 & 8  
•Escravos gas to liquid (CTL) phase 3 
•Brass LNG Project 
•OK-LNG Project 
• West African Gas Pipe line Project (WAGP) 
• Trans-Sahara Gas 
Pipeline Project 
• Mobil OSO Condensate Project phase 2 
Despite all these gigantic projects being embarked upon by the government through the NNPC/the JVs, there are still lacuna between energy abundance and power consumption from the dis-equilibrium in the energy management. This explains why some seasoned energy experts have reiterated repeatedly the need for the government to pursue other alternative sources of energy in the midst of the prevailing realities. The other sources of energy that could be pursued by the government are as follows: 
• Solar energy 
• Renewable energy 
• Nuclear energy 
• Bio-energy (bio-fuels, etc) 
Other energy experts from a different school of thought have propagated that with a good ‘coordination of the independent power projects embarked upon by the government and which are anchored on the watch eyes of the National Independent Power Project (generation) and the Electricity Regulatory Commission (consumption), the disparity in the energy requirement would soon be a thing of the past. 
A critical synopsis of the issue here before us reveals that the power situation via-a-vis the energy crisis pandemic in Nigeria demands a holistic approach. Experts in the power system have canvassed that wind energy development projects should be pursued in the southern part of the country because of the presence of sea breeze, while solar energy development projects should be pursued in the northern part of the country because of the availability of more sunshine. 
The Gas Master Plan, which is a long-term strategic plan (minimum of eight years) defines the strategic utilisation of the gas resources in the production of energy in the long term. Government should concentrate more on the development of facilities that will utilise these abundant gas resources instead of putting emphasis on gas flare-out dates from our oil and gas fields that are realisable because so long as the facilities that will utilise the gas are not in place, the option available to the industry players is to embark on continuous flaring. 
More so, multinational oil and gas companies should be supported and encouraged for a more pragmatic development of gas-focused projects that will exponentially utilise both the associated and non-associated gas, thereby resulting in reduction in the gas flaring rate in the country. 
The National Independent Power Projects (NIPP) should be re-organised for efficiency/higher productivity towards assuring more power is made available for the much-needed industrial development that we have been yearning for over a long time now. 
More energy players, for example, NNPC retail should be granted licence to operate in the industry to jump-start the utilisation process by ensuring that gas is put into good use for industrial development and attraction of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), which will further help to improve the micro-economic stability of the nation through the balancing of trade deficit. 
There is no justification for failure. A country that is the sixth largest producer of crude oil in the OPEC, the second largest producer of gas in Africa which also boasts of four re-fineries cannot be hapless as its economic activities ground to a halt due to some sort of energy crisis that is within the competence of its citizens to solve.